I often snoop around the US news websites if I am in the office early to see what might be hitting our shores in the next few hours. Today – I read a piece from USAToday.com that got me thinking. The piece talks about a proposed new German law proposed by Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere. The law, if passed would make it illegal for prospective employers to snoop on private internet postings. The law doesn’t prevent you from stalking through publicly available information but it does say that you cannot add a prospective employee as a friend and (in the words of USAToday “peek at photos from that keg party in college”.
AP explains a little further:
“If an employer turns down an application with another reasoning it might be difficult to prove” that the negative answer was based on the Facebook postings, de Maiziere said.
A rejected job applicant who proves he or she was turned down based of violation of the new law could take the company to court and claim damages, he said.”
Now – I have interviewed a fair few people in my time – I will admit that (especially with grads) I tend to search for them on google, twitter, facebook etc etc to see if I can get any additional information. And yes- I have already decided whether I am likely to like them or not in advance based on what I find. If a potential grad has a good twitter following and engages on topics related to my clients then they look pretty good to me. If however (as did once happen) I see a facebook status update saying “can’t be ar*ed writing my interview presentation for tomorrow – going to wing it…” then I will think badly of the person and will bring it up in the interview and watch them squirm.
Most of the comments on the piece suggest that if someone is stupid enough to add someone they don’t know on facebook then they deserve to be judged based on their facebook content. I am not sure – it is a tricky one – knowing where the public / private boundry lies. I wonder whether as time goes on – we might start going back the other way – making less and less information available. Techcrunch writer and community ‘celeb’ Paul Carr has already shut down all his social networks – one of the reasons being “people who enjoy my day-job writing are inevitably disappointed by the humdrum reality of my actual life, as laid bare by social media.”
I use the networks for specific things – to share pics with friends on facebook (am approaching my sixth weekend of weddings / hens – it is useful) and to get information on twitter. I have friends that deleted their accounts for a while but are now back on. I am nosy- I like knowing what is going in the world – both with my friends and my ‘internet friends’. My accounts will stay open for now. But I won’t be accepting any people I don’t know as friends on facebook. Not that I am looking for a new job @wadds / @mynameisearl 
