The use of online information that makes up our “virtual self” or now even our “online personal brands” for hiring decisions is disturbing to me mainly because there is no way to know what piece of information is really being objected to. I understand that many would just take the easier way to control this and only list what is “safe” content on their MySpace pages. Just don’t put anything “questionable” online right? But who gets to decide what is questionable? Did the candidate lose out on a job because they have a picture of them at a party tilting back a bottle of tequila OR is it because their picture shows that they are of another race or their profile says they are gay?

I love technology and love the ability to connect with people that never would have connected to before – but the use of our data and the “surveillance society” and the way that some will inevitably use data that they find is disturbing.

This problem with companies judging their applicants and employees by invading their privacy is not limited to myspace.com. Food servers in an Atlantic City resort are forced to be within certain weight limits. If they go over those weight limits, then they are suspended for 90 days to get their weight back to acceptable guidelines. Who are they to decide what an individual’s acceptable weight is for a job? What does weight have to do with being a food server?

Other examples of employers crossing the line include firing someone for having a John Kerry bumper sticker on their car or drinking a beer of a competitor at a bar during after hours. What do these actions have to do with the employee’s ability to do a job? Employer’s are threading on thin ice by invading the privacy of their employees and their prospective applicants.