Companies have long used criminal background checks, credit reports and even searches on Google and LinkedIn to probe the previous lives of prospective employees. Now, some companies are requiring job candidates to also pass a social media background check.
A year-old start-up, Social Intelligence, scrapes the internet for everything prospective employees may have said or done online in the past seven years. It then assembles a dossier with examples of professional honours and charitable work, along with negative information that meets specific criteria: online evidence of racist remarks; references to drugs; sexually explicit photos, text messages or videos; flagrant displays of weapons or bombs and clearly identifiable violent activity.
“We are not detectives,” said Max Drucker, chief executive of the company, which is based in Santa Barbara, California. “All we assemble is what is publicly available on the internet today.”
The Federal Trade Commission, after initially raising concerns last fall about Social Intelligence’s business, determined the company was in compliance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act, but the service still alarms privacy advocates who say it invites employers to look at information that may not be relevant to job performance.
And what relevant, unflattering information has led to job offers being withdrawn or not made? Drucker said one prospective employee was found using Craigslist to look for OxyContin. A woman posing naked in photos she put up on an image-sharing site didn’t get the job offer she was seeking at a hospital.
Other background reports have turned up examples of people making racist remarks, he said. Then there was the job applicant who belonged to a Facebook group, “This Is America. I Shouldn’t Have to Press 1 for English.” This raises a question. “Does that mean you don’t like people who don’t speak English?” asked Drucker rhetorically.
More From This Section
Drucker said his goal was to conduct pre-employment screenings that would help companies meet their obligation to conduct fair and consistent hiring practices while protecting the privacy of job candidates. For example, he said the reports remove references to a person’s religion, race, marital status, sexual orientation, disability and other information protected under federal employment laws, which companies are not supposed to ask about during interviews. Also, job candidates must first consent to the background check, and they are notified of any adverse information found.
He argues the search reduces the risk of employers confusing the job candidate with someone else or exposing the company to information that is not legal and relevant. “Googling someone is ridiculously unfair,” he said. “An employer could discriminate against someone inadvertently. Or, worse, they are exposing themselves to all kinds of allegations about discrimination.”
©2011 The New York
Times News Service