EmployeeScreenIQ Blog

Those of you who have followed our blog over the past few years know that we have been a harsh critic of using social networking sites to conduct background checks on employees.  The biggest driver in our arguments against this practice has always been our concern is that doing so was a lawsuit waiting to happen.  Potential discrimination, negligent hiring, lack of transparency, no dispute process, etc.

And yes, we still have these concerns.  However, we can’t bury our heads in the sand anymore and say that employers just shouldn’t do it.  In fact, we’ve heard about cases where employers are held accountable for not checking a public site, when they could have avoided incident if they did.

So where does this leave us.  I guess somewhere in the middle.  If you look at the numbers, more and more employers are using social networking sites as part of their employment screening procedures.  As a CRA, I am still not sure I want anything to do with offering the service on behalf of my clients.  But, I do know for sure that I would like to help them avoid the potential risks inherent in this practice.

Earlier today, I published a guest article on EmployeeScreen University entitled “Screening Job Applicants with Facebook”, written by Molly DiBianca.  Molly is a labor and employment attorney who has been an outspoken advocate of this practice.  While I have not always agreed with her position, I have a great amount of respect for her as a trailblazer in this regard.  She offers solid advice that employers can use if they decide to engage in social networking employment background checks.

I encourage you to read the article in it’s entirety and draw your own conclusions about whether this is right for your organization.

P.S. In a roundabout way, this post also serves as an apology to Social Intelligence’s Max Drucker for not taking the time to listen to his arguments about this practice before firing off.  I agreed be more open-minded and Max agreed not to kick my ass:)

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The Maryland ACLU is advocating on behalf of a Maryland corrections officer who objects to the state’s demand that he provide them with his Facebook account password as a condition of employment. Now, we know that it is becoming more and more common for employers to check out their candidates’ and employees’ Facebook pages as part of the background check process, but their passwords?

This didn’t work out so well for the city of Bozeman, MT a couple years ago. In fact, they had so much negative publicity when it came to national media attention that they abolished the practice shortly thereafter.

Check out the USA Today story below.

Worker Objects to the Use of Facebook for Background Checks

The American Civil Liberties Union is championing the case of a Maryland corrections officer, Robert Collins, who does not believe his employer should have the right to scour his personal Facebook account as a condition of employment.

The ACLU’s Maryland chapter sent this letter to state officials on Collins’ behalf. According the ACLU, the Maryland corrections division has a “blanket requirement” that job applicants, as well as current employees undergoing recertification, provide the government with their social media account usernames and personal passwords for use in background checks.

The ACLU in this blog post calls the policy “a gross breach of privacy” and a violation of state and federal law “which protect privacy rights and extend protections to electronic communications.”

As of late last week, the advocacy group had received no response from the state.

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Over the past few years EmployeeScreenIQ has delivered white papers, articles and blog postings covering a myriad of topics, most notably, the use of Social Networking sites in the recruiting and employment screening process.  Like it or not, social media has become a very important part of our lives.  A few years ago, a conversation might end with “Are you on Facebook?” Today, that conversation might start with “I loved your Facebook post yesterday, and by the way, your grandmother had the funniest tweet last week!”  In today’s day and age, if you are not using or watching social media, you are not part of a whole new world.  Today, Facebook boasts over 500 Million users, over 50% of them login each and every day.  Twitter and Linked in are quickly gaining with over 100million and 50 Million users respectively.

Twitter alone has helped shaped the movement in Egypt.  According to Mashable:

Over the past several days, Twitter and other social media platforms have been flooded with links, images and information about the current political crisis in Egypt.

Social media intelligence firm Sysomos has analyzed a lot of the Egypt-related tweets and mined them for important cues, such as keywords and location data, that might show us just how news and information about Egypt are being disseminated via social media.

Twitter has been framed — by its founders, no less — as an important news-bearing medium in this any many other situations of global portent. Even while the service, and in fact, all Internet access, has been intermittently blocked in Egypt during the crisis, news, video clips and images continue to spread around Twitter with the greatest urgency. In fact, Google today launched a voice-to-Twitter service specifically to assist Egyptian Twitter users wishing to act as citizen journalists.

The Egyptian Government completely shut down access to Social Media Sites!

What does all of this have to do with human resources or employment screening?  Well, here is where I get creative and tie it all in.  Fortunately (Unfortunately) companies don’t have the same powers as Egypt.  The CEO of a company might have the power to block Twitter, Facebook Etc. from their own internal networks but have no power beyond their corporate domain.  Organizations really have no power to control what an employee says outside of the workplace.  Yes, companies can create policies limiting what employees can say about their job, employer, workplace etc., but these policies are untested in a court of law.  Recently the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has taken exception to some of these policies.  Furthermore, there have been several cases of employees being terminated for writing about their employers, getting fired and then suing them.  Employers are not Countries, they can’t got the Egyptian route and just shut off access altogether.  Right now it’s the Wild West, everyone is creating policies but no one knows how to enforce them, or control them.  One thing we do know is that using these sites for background screening could pose a major violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), Various Social Media Privacy Policies, Wire Tapping Laws and a slew of other Federal Laws, some dating back decades before the Internet was invented…..by Al Gore!

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Sure, we’ve done our fair share of railing against the use of social networking sites such as Facebook as part of the background screening process.  Evidently, most employers aren’t listening.  In fact, a 2009 Microsoft survey found that as many as 75% of U.S. employers are using this tool to help them make hiring decisions.

We’re not changing our minds on this one and this story that was published in the Washington Post only bolsters our belief that people are unfairly eliminated for things that are beyond their control.  In this story a job candidate was denied a job after one of his friends posted pictures of him drinking and smoking cigarettes. Legal activities, right?  The job seeker made sure that his profile was kept private, but unfortunately, his friend did not.  Fair?  See below.

Miranda Shaw, a manager at a leading consulting firm, is hiring for a senior analyst position. She has narrowed the field to two candidates, Rick Parsons and Deborah Jones, and must make her recommendation to the company’s human resources department immediately. Both candidates graduated from the same highly ranked business school that Shaw attended. Both boast appropriate work backgrounds and shone in their interviews.

However, Parsons is first in line for the job because of his leadership skills, reputation for tireless energy and great communication skills. Before making her final decision, Shaw decides to Google both candidates.

. . .

On one Facebook page, Shaw found an album of pictures showing Parsons drinking, smoking cigarettes and – in his words – “smokin’ blunts” with college fraternity brothers. The page belonged to Parsons’s friend, who had not enabled his privacy settings.

When Shaw Googled the other finalist, Jones, she found only work-related sites that listed Jones as an effective project manager.

Parsons’s online photos caused Shaw to rethink her choice and to grapple with the slippery boundaries between public and private life.

THE RESOLUTION: Shaw concluded that Parsons would not fit in with the company’s professional work environment and her team. She could not waste time or money on hiring the wrong person. Yet she wondered whether she arrived at her decision fairly. After all, Parsons had not offered the information willingly, and he had set the appropriate privacy settings on his own Facebook page. Also, Shaw had not disclosed that she would conduct a background check online.

THE LESSON: Many people do not realize the extent to which their friends and associates could harm their online reputations. For example, friends who post and tag photos with their name and online identity on Facebook and elsewhere may have much more open privacy settings. Whatever is publicly accessible becomes public information, no matter who uploads it. It is more efficient for HR professionals to conduct online searches than to conduct reference checks, so this is a growing dilemma for companies.

Before posting information and photographs on Facebook, remember that in the virtual world, our houses are made of glass. Every piece of data is permanent and stored in a digital archive. More than half of employers cite provocative photographs as the biggest factor in the decision not to hire.

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Come on guys, don’t you read our blog? BAD IDEA!!  Just call your counterparts in Bozeman, Montana and ask them how embarrassing it was when that story hit the news.

Police recruits screened for digital dirt on Facebook, etc.

By Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY

Law enforcement agencies are digging deep into the social media accounts of applicants, requesting that candidates sign waivers allowing investigators access to their Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Twitter and other personal spaces.

Some agencies are demanding that applicants provide private passwords, Internet pseudonyms, text messages and e-mail logs as part of an expanding vetting process for public safety jobs.

More than a third of police agencies review applicants’ social media activity during background checks, according to the first report on agencies’ social media use by the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), the largest group of police executives. The report out last month surveyed 728 agencies.

“As more and more people join these networks, their activities on these sites become an intrinsic part of any background check we do,” said Laurel, Md., Police Chief David Crawford.

Privacy advocates say some background investigations, including requests for text message and e-mail logs, may go too far.

“I’m very uneasy about this,” says Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. “Where does it all stop?”

During the IACP’s conference last month in Orlando, about 100 chiefs and other law enforcement officials who attended sessions on vetting applicants’ social media use said they either request waivers and other personal information from applicants or are developing policies to do so.

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In the past week Facebook finally posted its updated privacy controls and policy.  Many media outlets are reporting that these new controls do anything but protect ones privacy.  In our effort to further educate employers about using social networking sites for background screening our case is sustained further to job seekers who are worried about what someone can find.  As a screening company we are all for open information to  employers, however, in many cases the information is misleading and even fraudulent.

Privacy advocates slam Facebook change

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) – Privacy advocates slammed revamped Facebook privacy controls on Thursday, saying the change masks a move to get members to expose more information online.

“These new privacy changes aren’t so great for privacy,” said Nicole Ozer, northern California technology and civil liberties policy director for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) rights group.

“It’s great that 350 million people are being asked to think about privacy, but if what Facebook says is true about giving people more control over their information, they have a lot more work to do.”

Online rights organization Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) labeled aspects of Facebook’s privacy change “downright ugly.”

The world’s leading online social network fired back, saying its critics are wrong and that time will prove that Facebook is taking “a giant step forward.”

The controversy came a day after Facebook began requiring users to refine settings with a new software tool that lets them specify who gets to be privy to each piece of content uploaded to the website.

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Facebook is working really hard to combat online sexual predators and other deviant behavior on its popular internet portal.  Facebook is the leading online social networking tool with over 300 million subscribers.  This online safety board is a great step towards thwarting this type of activity.  I think a great next step is for them to educate employers on the perils of using its site for background checks.  As our readers know well this is a topic we have written passionately about for a few years now.  We look forward to one day collaborating with the folks over at Facebook on how to better protect employers and applicants alike!

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Social networking site Facebook said it has formed an advisory board comprising five Internet safety organizations to consult on issues related to online safety.

Facebook plans to regularly meet board members to review existing safety resources it provides its users, develop new materials and seek advice on general safety best practices.

The first task of the board will be to oversee an overhaul of safety content in Facebook’s help center.

The organizations on the board are Common Sense Media, ConnectSafely, WiredSafety, Childnet International and The Family Online Safety Institute.

Facebook and rival MySpace, owned by News Corp, have deals with state attorneys general to increase efforts to protect their youngest members from abuse.

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During Tuesday’s much publicized and controversial speech President Barack Obama touched on a subject we are very passionate about.  Echoing the plethora of articles we have written about over the last several years Obama warned of the perils of sites such as Facebook and MySpace.

“Well, let me give you some very practical tips. First of all, I want everybody here to be careful about what you post on Facebook, because in the YouTube age, whatever you do, it will be pulled up again later somewhere in your life,” Obama said.

“And when you’re young, you make mistakes and you do some stupid stuff. And I’ve been hearing a lot about young people who — you know, they’re posting stuff on Facebook, and then suddenly they go apply for a job and somebody has done a search.”

Where EmployeeScreenIQ has warned employers from using such information, he tells kids to be careful about what the put out there in the first place.  A smart strategy knowing that not all employers take our advice!  Aside from the many EEOC issues an employer could encounter there are several other Federal mandates one could violate. Most notibly is the Fair Credit Reporting Act.  (FCRA). To see one of our many presentations on the subject, feel free to visit here!

Obama Warns Teens of Perils of Facebook

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -

President Barack Obama warned American teenagers on Tuesday of the dangers of putting too much personal information on Internet social networking sites, saying it could come back to haunt them in later life.

The presidential words of advice follow recent studies that suggest U.S. employers are increasingly turning to sites such as Facebook and News Corp’s MySpace to conduct background checks on job applicants.

Taking part in a question-and-answer session with a group of 14- and 15-year-old school students, Obama was asked by one pupil for some advice on becoming U.S. president.

“Well, let me give you some very practical tips. First of all, I want everybody here to be careful about what you post on Facebook, because in the YouTube age, whatever you do, it will be pulled up again later somewhere in your life,” Obama said.

“And when you’re young, you make mistakes and you do some stupid stuff. And I’ve been hearing a lot about young people who — you know, they’re posting stuff on Facebook, and then suddenly they go apply for a job and somebody has done a search.”

Obama referred several times to “mistakes” he had made when he was at school but offered no specifics. He has previously admitted to drug use when he was younger.

A survey in June by careerbuilder.com found that 45 percent of employers used social network sites to research job candidates and that Facebook, which says it has 250 million users worldwide, was their site of choice.

Some 35 percent of the employers surveyed said they had found content on the sites that had influenced them to reject a candidate. Examples included inappropriate photographs, information about the applicants’ drinking or drug use, or bad mouthing of previous employers, co-workers or clients.

The Obama White House frequently uses Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites to bypass the media and communicate directly to Americans.

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 The following story isn’t anything new to our readers.  We’ve stated time and time again that employers should not use social networking sites as a way to investigate job candidates because the information you find may not be truthful in nature.  How do you know that the Facebook profile filled with bad language and borderline inappropriate photos you are looking at is your candidate’s creation and not the invention of a former friend, spouse or co-worker with an ax to grind?  Denying someone a job based on information found on a social networking site could be asking for trouble. 

But what about offering someone a position with your company based on the favorable information found in their profile?  This section of the article peaked my interest:

“On the other hand, some candidates are doing a good job of presenting their professional side when posting online. Half of those who screened candidates via their social networking profiles said that they got a good feel for the person’s personality and fit within the organization. Other employers said that they found the profiles supported the candidates’ professional qualifications or that they discovered how creative the candidate was. Solid communication skills, evidence of well-roundedness, and other people’s good references (we assume this one came from LinkedIn) helped boost people’s credentials, too.”

With all of the press surrounding employers using sites like Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and Twitter to screen job applicants, it’s only a matter of time before applicants catch on and create fake profiles to make themselves look more qualified and professional than they really are (and maintain their real profiles under a pseudonym known only to the people they want to know).  And those references you see on LinkedIn – I could have a handful of glowing references on my profile by the end of the day just by sending a mass text to my old high school and college buddies.

Employers - Don’t believe the hype about how great social networking sites are to screen candidates.  Can you imagine having to explain to your boss: “Well, their facebook profile looked okay…” 

Click to read “Uncouth Facebook postings closing doors for job candidates”

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Two great blog postings from two great online legal sources.  The first by Jon Hyman of Korman, Jackson and Krantz talks about a restaurants liability of firing employees after reading their Myspace posts.  This does not fit with our argument about not using it for background screening prior to hiring but it is closely related.  If you read our story about Bozeman Montana you will see how this jury finding is important and timely.  The practice of requiring employees to divulge their passwords violated the Stored Communications Act.

The second story comes from the Legal Blog Watch.  In it, 69 year old human rights activist Khedija Arfaoui is facing an eight month jail sentence in Tunisia for posting a message on Facebook about rumors of children being kidnapped in the country for their organs.  Enjoy!

Jon Hyman Blog

Carolyn Elefant Blog

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