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Facebook Passwords and Employment Background Checks

Here is an interesting article regarding the controversy over employers who are requesting their job applicants’ Facebook Passwords in order to monitor this social media function.   While social media reviews can be helpful, there are also things to consider, including invasion of privacy issues and FCRA compliance standards.

 

Facebook itself made a statement that its members not be required to provide to prospective employers their user id and password information.  Facebook, in a statement, regards this as private information.

My own thoughts concern the value standards as to what would constitute a negative review of an employment candidate’s social media background check?   Some aspects of that background check are pretty obvious–i.e. bad mouthing other employers, former and current managers, etc.   But some information may just be personality indicators, may even reveal certain eccentricities, which of themselves do not necessarily nullify a job applicant’s skill sets or his ability to perform the job.

Here is the complete article…go to this link in the Wall Street Journal.

By Gordon Basichis

Gordon Basichis is the Co-Founder of Corra Group, specializing in pre-employment background checks and corporate research. He has been a marketing and media executive and has worked in the entertainment industry, the financial, health care and technology sectors. He is the author of the best selling Beautiful Bad Girl, The Vicki Morgan Story, a non-fiction novel that helped define exotic sexuality in the late twentieth century. He is the author of the Constant Travellers and has recently completed a new book, The Guys Who Spied for China, dealing with Chinese Espionage in the United States. He has been a journalist for several newspapers and is a screenwriter and producer.

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