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Social networking websites and "Googling" may potentially be a dangerous practice for many employers
In conducting background checks on applicants, many employers are trying to save money by resorting to publicly available information, including online resources. “Googling” the name of an applicant to search for entries in blogs, or social networking websites like MySpace or Facebook has become a common, but potentially dangerous, practice for many employers.
While information found on public sites on the Internet is readily available to anyone, caution should be used in relying on this information for exactly the same reason. Information found on the Internet may not accurately reflect the qualities or capacities of the applicant in question. In recent years, for example, there have been numerous reports of false information posted either out of spite or merely as a joke. Even if such information is true or accurate, the question still remains whether it is pertinent to the applicant’s qualifications for the position in question.
In addition, employers must be careful not to consider information found on the Internet that the employer cannot legally consider in screening applicants. For example, social networking pages may provide information about an applicant’s protected status such as the applicant’s age, race, marital status, religion and similar information. This is information that an employer may not consider in making hiring decisions.
Accordingly, when employers consider online sources of information, employers should be careful in ensuring that:
- the information found is true and reliable
- the information is pertinent to the applicant’s ability to perform the job, and
- that the information falls into a category that the employer may legally elicit from the applicant during an interview.
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