FTC Okays Social Media Background Check Company 229
nonprofiteer writes "The FTC has dropped its investigation of a new company that runs social media background checks and ongoing Internet/social media monitoring of employees, determining its compliant with the Fair Credit Reporting Act. So make sure your gun photos are private and that you're not part of any 'Legalize marijuana' Facebook groups."
Why guns? (Score:5, Insightful)
There's nothing illegal about owning and being proud of guns (at least in the US)...so I don't get this comment on the article.
It isn't like being a gun owner would prevent anyone from getting a job or anything...never heard of that one.
No (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:This kind of thing could kill facebook... (Score:4, Insightful)
Yeah illegal. ... in real life.
It's not a technical shortcoming of facebook's that you can't compartmentalize your presence, like we do
Re:Why guns? (Score:5, Insightful)
All of which are reasons you will lose you your job thanks to this service. (Of course, they wouldn't openly fire you for being gay, but clever HR knows how to tapdance).
No tap dancing necessary depending on the state. TFA specifically points out that Colorado does not prohibit selective employment based on sexual orientation. Just because what you're doing is legal doesn't necessarily mean that your activities in your private life can't legally be used to refuse you employment or fire you. That doesn't necessarily make it right, it just makes it legal.
Facebook is for the clueless (Score:2, Insightful)
Anyone with a brain saw this coming long before now.
Whether it is legal or not is beside the point. If you use Facebook
you are providing info about yourself to a very large number of
people you don't know, and ( here is a clue for you ) not all of these
people will act in a friendly manner toward you.
There's no real reason to use Facebook, and the smartest people I know
already know this. If you want to keep up with your friends ( no you don't
have 800 friends ) you use email and the phone. If you want to disseminate
info about yourself to a select group of people, you put up your own web page
and make sure those in the select group know not to share the login password.
If you use Facebook, you deserve each and every nasty thing which results.
Welcome to the real world, where there are consequences for stupid actions
whether you think that's "fair" or not ( here's a second clue for you : there is no
such thing as "fair" in the real world ).
Why anything? (Score:5, Insightful)
The current American mentality is witchhunt first, then never, ever forgive. Felon? Employment-wise, you're hammered. Forever. Sexual *anything* to do with the law? Employment-wise, you're hammered. Forever. Anything that the social retards think isn't Good for the Children? I'm talking drinking, drugging, tattoos, piercings, partying, "planking", nudity of any kind, shooting, marching for any particular cause, flash mobbing, pranking, sexting, imitating the cognitively-impaired people on Jackass, extreme sports... or even being THERE when someone ELSE is doing any of these things... employment-wise, you're hammered.
And if, for some reason, things aren't quite that bad yet, don't worry, they'll very likely pass ex post facto laws to make it so later; just as they already have with guns and the various lists -- do not fly, do not sell to, violent/sexual offender, terrorism. And they'll conflate ridiculous things too - 17-year-old == child == peeing in bush, etc. You can do the most innocuous thing that you think is perfectly ok -- like photograph your cute little infant in the tub -- and end up with your mug shot right next to Victor the Vaginal Butcher, unemployable and forced to move into a box under that bridge downtown you've been throwing your coffee cups over the past few years.
So... you don't appreciate StupidBook becoming a threat to your job and you life and your family? Get out before it happens. Delete everything on your page before you go, and un-friend everyone. It's all you can do. It won't be enough - this is truly becoming a permanent record society that never, ever forgives, criminalizes the ridiculous, and no longer even gives lip service to the ideas of forgiveness or rehabilitation - but it's a start in the right direction.
Also - speaking as a photographer of many years - stop photographing people. Just stop. Nature, old, non-governmental architecture, that's the thing to shoot. Photography is turning into the next minefield. Same thing goes for video, if you're into video. Not just because it might harm you; but because it also might harm them. You might photograph someone in a place they really would prefer others not know they were, for whatever reason... you might catch that funny drunk guy, share the pic, and cause him to lose his job and livelihood and really, really hurt his entire family... or you might shoot that lovely government building you paid for and find yourself answering very hard questions from very hard people about why there is a bottle of bleach under your sink and ammo for your 22 cal. match rifle in your closet, said people showing up right at your job, complete with warrant from their pet oath-breaking judge. Followed immediately by your very own pink slip, because employers are hugely threatened by such events. And now you're unemployable. Welcome to America 2011.
Re:tell me what you see: (Score:3, Insightful)
lack of confidence, insecurity, immodesty, lack of discretion, borderline personality disorder, anger management issues, immaturity, explosive hostility
people who have a need to pose with a handgun are communicating character weaknesses i don't want to deal with in a job environment
People who have a need to try and build a personality profile (full of diagnosis that only a psychologist who has spent time with the person is qualified to make) of someone they don't know based solely on Facebook photos are doing nothing more than projecting their own biases onto others and then denying that this perception was entirely self-manufactured.