Imagine you are a recent college graduate ready to take on the real world of working, making a living and beginning life on your own. You seem to have it all: a degree, a good amount of experience and the willingness to learn and work hard. However, you have a Facebook profile and some of the posted photographs have landed you in hot water and taken you out of the running for that coveted position.
Employers hiring potential employees and firing current employees based on their online social networking profiles is an issue that deserves attention, but the bigger dilemma is the lack of privacy online.
I used to think the Internet was a safe and a somewhat private place. Yet I’ve come to understand that although it is a useful tool to have, especially while in school, when you search for something online or visit certain Web sites, cookies can aid in tracking what interests online users and cater to those interests via advertisements.
If I enter personal information on a supposedly secure site that requires a username and password, I expect that to remain private. I would never imagine that information being sold or found in any other database. It would be terrifying. Online users should expect privacy when it comes to secure sites holding their personal information such as credit card numbers and social security numbers when they take it upon themselves to utilize the privacy settings on sites such as Facebook.
The Internet is public, so it is difficult to discuss the expectation of privacy. Internet users should be aware and protect of themselves and their information. When providing personal information, it is important to know and trust the site to avoid being a victim of identity theft, phishing or hacking. It is important to know the Internet is public and what you post will be there.
Facebook is a good case study in being aware of what you post online. The multi-million dollar social networking company recently made controversial changes to its terms of service. According to The Consumerist, a consumer blog, the changes would ensure the site’s permanent claim on personal content posted by the user. This would enable Facebook the right to use content even after a person’s profile has been deleted.
After harsh criticism towards the proposed changes, The Washington Post reported that Facebook reinstated the previous terms of use, which states “Facebook does not assert any ownership over your user content” and “you retain full ownership of all of your user content and any intellectual property rights or other proprietary rights associated with your user content.”
Even though the company reversed that policy after public uproar, the idea of Facebook using your content for their purposes and employers hiring and firing based on profiles both stem from broader online privacy issues.
First, people should know what they post online can be seen by others. If privacy settings are used so only friends are allowed to view profiles, photographs, and other information, it should remain private from outsiders including those beyond the Facebook realm and possible employers. If only friends are allowed, then only they should be allowed.
Second, if employers are able to view profile information when it is set to private, this is an issue on its own. Privacy settings enabled by the user should keep information private and how are future employers granted access if it is private without hacking in some way?
I have to disagree with hiring and firing based on profile photographs. Shouldn’t your personal life be left at the door? A person working five days a week deserves a little down time on the weekends. What a person does on his or her own time on days off should not be used to judge work ethic because that person may be serious and hard-working when they enter the workplace. Employers know that Facebook is popular and that our generation is utilizing it, but business and personal lives should not coincide.
Facebook retaining user information long after profiles have been deleted can be a problem if people are realizing that their employment future depends on it. If I wanted to delete my profile, what would be the point if anyone could search and find the information anyway? Of course, if you do not have photographs or information posted that could be incriminating, there probably is no need to worry.
Knowing what a site’s terms of use are is critical before signing your name to anything, just as posting information about yourself. Before you join the popular world of social networking and post anything, know that someone out there may see it.
Samantha MacConnell is a journalism senior and Mustang Daily reporter.