Employers these days have been subjecting their employees to Facebook checks to see what kind of character they have. Employers started by just looking on an employees facebook so that thy can see what kind of individual they have become. It has even gone as far as where employers ave asked employees for username and passwords to future potential employees. At what point does this become an invasion of privacy?
On one hand it is a social network in which is open to the public, this makes it hard to justify where laws should be drawn for prospecting a future potential employer. It is one thing to look into an employee on Facebook, looking at their profile as a guest or trying to add them as a friend to which where the employee knows what’s going on and that they can approve it if they choose. However, to just look spy on someone’s account without letting them know or just requiring them to give an username and password is borderline on invasion of privacy. This should never be allowed. I understand wanting to know who you are hiring but at the same time there are limits to where that is ok.
Athletes
NCAA athletes are also subject to having their profiles checked on a regular basis. Being a collegiate athlete there are people that check our profiles on a regular basis. However we know about it and the only way that they check it is that they friend us on Facebook. You have the choice to decline them, but if you do they will just keep requesting you until you finally add them. It is a nuisance, but it is for the good of the University.
Athletes are known to represent the school that they play for. They do get more notoriety than regular students and people always seem to be waiting for athletes to slip up. As soon as people find an athlete messing up it comes back on the university in a bad way. In this retrospect it does make a good amount of sense. So there are both negative and positives to being looked at on a regular basis.
Lastly, I think this is a great opportunity to start educating people what they should and shouldn’t put on Facebook. This has been a long time coming and people need to realize that they can’t put everything on Facebook that they like and still have a professional life. So why there should be limits on to what employers should be able to look into through Facebook, I believe this is a good opportunity for people to learn responsibility for what they post on the internet.