In his book The Future of Reputation (available for free online), Daniel J Solove discusses some of the dangers of being a participant in an online world. One of his points is that even the most carefully honed personal privacy policies are subject to leaks from friends, family members or even complete strangers.

He also mentions that many companies are starting to take advantage of the availabilty of extra information by using Google searches to screen potential candidates - but I wonder if this is really the best approach.

To be honest I think this says more about the people doing the searching than it does about the candidate. Can they honestly say that the people they hired in the pre-MySpace era don't have any skeletons in the closet? To read someone's MySpace profile as an extension of their resume is pretty daft when you think about it. So they drink a lot on the weekend and get crazy from time to time - in some workplaces I know that probably describes half the people there. What are you really getting out of screening your candidates this way?

Companies should really start considering what their use of online screening techniques says about them. Imagine the reaction of an otherwise excellent candidate when you ask them why there is a picture of them playing Edward Forty Hands on flickr. "That was my birthday... are you saying this company disapproves of me getting drunk on my birthday?" Give that impression and you may find that many of your more sociable applicants choose to work somewhere a little less judgemental.

With more and more people opening up their social lives online I wonder if we are going to see a drop off in the perceived usefulness of this kind of screening. When recruiters find that their entire lineup of candidates consists of promiscuous, drunken, semi-naked ravers or friendless corporate drones they may start to feel that digging in to people's personal lives is a waste of time. However if things go the other way and people start to pay more attention to online privacy, people will be continue to be at risk of being unfairly judged because of information leaked through their "privacy wall" by friends or family.

I've decided to take a hybrid approach - lock down my social networking profiles to friends only and open up other profiles so that any embarrassing leaks are drowned out by positive information. Hopefully taking this step now while I'm in full employment means that I'll hit the ground running when I do next find myself looking for work - but I'll let you know how that works out.

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