Employer Access to Your Social Network Accounts? Fuggedaboutit!

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In the past few months there’s been a lot of uproar on the subject of allowing an employer to see a potential employee’s Facebook account. Have heard and read that it’s illegal, though I don’t know for sure. 


The good news is there are current initiatives from several states that may put it all to rest. 


One in particular, 'The Social Networking Online Protection Act’, would prevent potential and current employers from asking for access to a social media account of an employee or potential one. Hurray!


Here’s my ponderings on this subject.


How private IS your Facebook profile? If it’s set to public, your future employer will see it without even having to ask you. Are you nursing a beer in any photos? Is your language colorful? If so, you may be kissing that job goodbye.


If you are set to friends only or custom, a potential employer will see your profile pic and cover art and little else.

If you don’t want an employer to find anything, there’s a few options in Facebook as far as how searchable you are. Your profile can be removed from being searchable all together or perhaps you’d like friends of friends to find you; it’s another option to consider. 


In all the discussion about Facebook profiles lately, why hasn’t Google+ received the same scrutiny? After all, there’s 170 to 195 million accounts there (dependent on source). Surely, there’s accounts that are tightly wrapped that never go beyond those folks in circles that an employer would love to take a look at.


And what about all those private accounts on Twitter? You know, the protected ones where the tweep has to follow you back before you can see their tweets? 


Employers, don’t you want to see EVERYTHING? Why just Facebook?


But it gets better. Employers, why not ask to enter a potential employee’s home then? Have a look around. Do they make the bed and do the dishes? Is there a recycling bin? Are yesterday’s clothes strewn about on the floor?


No, you wouldn’t think of going to see someone’s home, would you? Is asking to see a Facebook account just as invasive? Family photos, the pet dog, their last vacation to the Jersey Shore or Santa Cruz? It seems absurd to even ask to see the private life of someone. 


If someone has the ability to do the job, is it necessary to know more? It certainly wasn’t not so many years ago. 



Facebook will defend you, the user, against this practice. How hard will they fight for you? Well, that remains to be seen. 


Of course, you can always get sneaky and have TWO Facebook accounts. One that is buried way underground where you can hang out with your closest friends and curse, rant, and let it all hang out to your heart’s content and the other that’s more public and on the generic side. Don’t tell anyone I suggested this to you…


Do you have secrets? Carly Simon doesn't. 

Find me on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ ...stop by; say hi!

Face Recognition and Privacy on Facebook; Are YOU in Control?

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Face Detection on Facebook has been around since last year, but now there’s Face Recognition, NOT a new technology, by the way, that takes lack of privacy to another level. What’s the difference? Prompted tagging versus “instant” tagging. 

Facebook’s rationale is that it makes our lives easier. Did users really write in to Facebook and complain that manual tagging was too difficult or time consuming? Ha!

From what I’ve read in several articles, the tagging is instant in a sense that Facebook HAS that information stored somewhere, however, they will not be automatically tagging your photos. What they are doing is going through all photos that are on Facebook, not just the recent ones.


Is that scary? Yes, however, once this all rolls out in the next few weeks, your life will not be suddenly exposed. YOU have the choice to manually tag them.

Now, before we all get into a frenzy over this, I couldn’t help noticing that some of my Facebook friends who are upset about this have their profiles available for anyone on Facebook to see. If you are indeed concerned about privacy, DO hide your wall, at the very least! It’s easy.  Click on Account on the upper right of any Facebook page, then Privacy Settings, then choose how much you’re willing to share and to who. Do you want to share to Everybody, Friends of Friends, Friends Only, or Custom? This is where you can keep people out of your more personal info, such as family photos.

Okay. Feel better now that 500 million people aren’t able to see those embarrassing photos of that wild birthday party?

Here’s the good news: The media went to town with the Face Recognition announcement with a heavy slant towards the negative side. Another positive point: Would Facebook be that stupid to expose us all to the world? And yes, in the past, there have been lots of privacy issues with Facebook; however, as I’ve pointed out in previous posts, it is a matter of education. YOU have control over your privacy in Facebook.

Which brings up another point. Facebook already has a LOT of information on you. It’s unlikely that they are suddenly going to go public with my birthdate (which I show to no one but hey, Facebook has it). It’s my choice whether or not YOU have that information. It would come from ME. But you’d have to ask me nicely!

Now, the big question is…how to protect yourself from Face Recognition? Ha ha…you KNEW there’d be a solution, right? Let me be the bearer of GREAT news…

Back at Account settings in the upper right, again, hey, it’s under Privacy settings. Down a ways on the page in the middle click on Customize Settings. In the section halfway down, Things Others Share click on Edit Settings to the right of Suggest Photos of me to Friends. Here you can enable or disable this feature.

Note that Facebook reminds us that WE have control (this is word for word what is stated there):
You're always in control of your tags on Facebook:
•    Only friends can tag you in photos
•    We'll notify you when a friend has tagged you
•    You can remove a friend's tag at any time
•    Tag suggestions are based only on photos you've allowed yourself to be tagged in

So, I hope your fears have now subsided and you’re breathing a big sigh of relief. Go ahead and continue to enjoy the social networking experience.
For more on privacy issues on Facebook, click here.

Facebook Privacy Files: Wow! You went to Disney World last year?

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I don’t know you from Adam, but we both know Joe. Couldn’t help but noticing where you took your wife, your son with the Yankees cap, and your daughter with the cute teddy bear tucked under her arm on vacation last November. And your labradoodle is adorable. Nice swing set in the backyard too. Why do I know all this about you? Um, excuse me, but your Facebook is showing.

Indeed, your personal life has unfolded before my eyes. The birthdays, the holiday family gathering, vacations, dance recitals, sport events, and just hanging out in the backyard. The big question is….why do you want ME to know about it? Yes indeed, Social Media is supposed to be social, but to what extent?

Well, one thing I’ve discovered is that good old fashioned ignorance has a lot to do with my exposure to your life. People just don’t realize their Facebook profiles can be seen by all. They just don’t know! In a small way, I’ve attempted to enlighten a few folks about this, with my suspicion being that easy access to their lives is not their true preference.

Whenever I come across an old acquaintance on Facebook that I’ve not yet friended, in addition to extending the olive branch of eternal virtual connectivity, I inform them that their profiles are “100% public”. They aren’t really, but I do need to get my point across. If you’re not a part of Facebook, you won’t see those profiles. But for the millions that are on Facebook, the information is there to taste and digest and do who knows what with.

For the most part the reactions I’ve received sound something like this: “Whoa, I didn’t know; how do I fix that?” For a few others, there’s been no response at all except for the acceptance of the friendship. Well, okay then.

My advice? Check those privacy settings. It takes all of two minutes to do so. And it's fairly intuitive too, almost simple. In the upper right of any Facebook page, click on Account, Privacy Settings, Profile Information, and check your settings. If you want the world to see your information, as least make it an educated choice.