Employer background checks might include your drunken facebook photos

I've heard of employers checking your Facebook on their own to do a "background check", or just to keep tabs.

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Where I work we do the same thing. Facebook is the first place we look.

I find it equally as invasive and much less of a reason not to hire someone. You could not get a job or lose your job for just having fun. That's scary.

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Well, the "not getting a job just for having fun" argument also applies to the urine testing. :)

I've always thought we as a society give our employers and potential employers way too much control over us. That coupled with the advent of social media and the fact that it is totally an employer's market makes this just seem inevitable to me.

I used to be friendly with someone who was not hired for a job for posting that she wanted to have George Clooney's baby on MySpace. People do look and it can make a difference in whether you get hired or not.

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I am going to take down a lot of picks because I realized my friends can copy them. I don't have drunken pics on there. Probably because the people I am with when drinking are too drunk to take a picture!

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IAMWHATIAM, I see your point, but then I look at Eris's post and realize that no matter what you put out there, there's a good chance someone can find fault with it. I fail to see what's so offensive about someone commenting that they'd want to have George Clooney's baby. Hell, I hear women (and men!) say things like that in office settings all the time.

Even more insidiously, I wonder if people will lose out on jobs their jobs due to their political affiliations ,sexual orientation, religious affiliation (or lake thereof), etc. I mean, I know they do already - and one could argue that in the long run your better off not being employed by someone who would do such a thing - but I think the issue here could be more than just pics of you having a "cuh-razy" time.

But, all that said, it's not that hard make your account private.

As for other people's pictures of you, if you're that concerned, I think just untagging yourself would solve the problem.

Ugh I HATE this! I don't even have a Facebook thing but everyone else in my life does and there are pics of me (thank God none of drunken behavior) all over...they should have to get your written consent to post your pics up there!

while I totally understand, if you are not on facebook there is no way to tag you in those photos, so while they are out there, and that could suck, they should not show up under any web search of your name.

I have a strict policy with my friends of we can post photos (using judegement) but that no one is to tag anyone. If someone wants to be tagged in the photo, they can do it themselves.

I have two accounts, my personal and a work experiment one. I, once a month, try to view my personal account through the other one and make sure everything is private and not viewable.

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I'd recommend that if you have an old Friendster account to just delete the damn thing. Every time I google my name my long-defunct Friendster account gets attached to all sorts of urls that I've never posted on, I guess because it pulls words in the profile and attaches them to others? If you google my name eventually you'll find a link titled "Sex in Evanston, IL." I've never even LIVED in Evanston!

It sounds like while Phyllis never lived in Evanston he certainly LIVED there.

Mine comes up with pictures of boats

Updated On: 6/22/11 at 09:37 AM