The Federal Trade Commission recently approved the services of the company Social Intelligence Corporation in obtaining and distributing personal information and photos gathered from social networking sites, like Facebook, to potential employers for background checks, according to a report on Forbes.
The decision came last week under the pretense that the company’s activities were in accordance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which regulates the collection, dissemination, and use of consumer information.
In order to provide some sense of protection for privacy, clients of Social Intelligence Corp. are required to inform applicants if information from the service was used against them in a decision to rescind a job offer.
Privacy is still at concern, however, because Social Intelligence Corp. stores data for up to 7 years. The company claims that if the stored information is removed from the internet by the actual user, than the company will not provide that information to their clients.
COO of Social Intelligence, Geoffrey Andrews, wrote in an email sent to Forbes that, “while we store information for up to seven years we do not “reuse” that information for new reports … we run new reports on applicants on each new search to ensure the most accurate and up-to-date information is utilized.”
The information gathered by the company is also limited to publicly displayed information, things that can be mined and accessed from the exterior without needing to be a friend or associate of the person in question. This makes it possible to simply change privacy settings or remove any unbecoming content from your page to prevent your information from becoming readily available for future employers.
The question of privacy ultimately is directly related to the amount of transparency consumers are willing to undergo in order to share and partake in social networking.
The decision came last week under the pretense that the company’s activities were in accordance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which regulates the collection, dissemination, and use of consumer information.
In order to provide some sense of protection for privacy, clients of Social Intelligence Corp. are required to inform applicants if information from the service was used against them in a decision to rescind a job offer.
Privacy is still at concern, however, because Social Intelligence Corp. stores data for up to 7 years. The company claims that if the stored information is removed from the internet by the actual user, than the company will not provide that information to their clients.
COO of Social Intelligence, Geoffrey Andrews, wrote in an email sent to Forbes that, “while we store information for up to seven years we do not “reuse” that information for new reports … we run new reports on applicants on each new search to ensure the most accurate and up-to-date information is utilized.”
The information gathered by the company is also limited to publicly displayed information, things that can be mined and accessed from the exterior without needing to be a friend or associate of the person in question. This makes it possible to simply change privacy settings or remove any unbecoming content from your page to prevent your information from becoming readily available for future employers.
The question of privacy ultimately is directly related to the amount of transparency consumers are willing to undergo in order to share and partake in social networking.
