It may be due to a difficult job market.  Or perhaps it’s just a sign of the times.  According to one article, however, 83% of recruiters now search the internet for “digital dirt” in order to weed out prospective job candidates.  Thus, inappropriate Facebook photos, unbecoming MySpace profiles, vituperative message board postings, controversial political statements, publicly available criminal records, or any other questionable information are helping recruiters eliminate otherwise promising candidates from available positions.   

But it’s not just recruiters who are doing this.  More and more companies—both large and small—are either doing their own in-house searches or subcontracting them out to investigators who do them quickly and inexpensively.  Employers are all too aware that the costliest and most expensive decisions they make have to do with hiring the “right” people.  And the flood of information out there helps them in their decision-making process. 

And it’s perfectly legal.  If you voluntarily provide information and pictures for others to see, you can’t complain if it doesn’t always garner the results you want.  Of course, if a potential employer hacks into a system or uses a password without authorization to compile its profile on you, then you may have legal recourse (assuming that you ever find out about it).  You won’t have the job, but you’ll have the chance to bring an expensive and time-consuming lawsuit. 

So, as I mentioned in my last posting, be careful in general, but especially if you’re unemployed and looking for work (or will be facing that prospect shortly).  If you have any doubts about posting something, this in itself should tell you that perhaps it’s better to resist the urge.  Remember:  When in doubt, keep it out! 

Here’s an intriguing question:  Does the internet make people more stupid or have they always been this stupid but the internet simply showcases it for all to see?  In yet another example of how social networking sites can work to a person’s detriment, 20 year-old college junior Joshua Lipton attended a Halloween party dressed as a prisoner in a striped black & white shirt and orange jumpsuit with the word “Jail Bird” emblazoned on it.

Sounds harmless, right?  Well, it would have been had Lipton not been charged in a drunk driving accident 2 weeks earlier that seriously injured another person.  While Lipton himself didn’t post these pictures, one of the other victims of the crash found them on another Facebook user’s profile that was accessible from Lipton’s Facebook page.  The end result?  The prosecutor got a hold of the pictures and presented them to the judge at the sentencing hearing and argued that they showed a lack of remorse by Lipton.

While Lipton might have only received probation, the judge sentenced him to 2 years in prison instead.  The judge later admitted that the pictures impacted his decision.  He noted that Lipton was mocking the possibility of going to prison after a near-fatal accident.  So the judge indulged him. 

The moral of the story:  ALWAYS be careful about what you post online, especially when it comes to photographs.  A picture truly is worth a thousand words.  Nowadays, embarassment should be the least of your concerns.  They can have a real impact upon your legal rights.  Just ask Joshua Lipton.