Think before you post... Your future employer may be watching

Abstract

The explosion of social networking sites in recent years has given many Kim Kardashian wannabes an opportunity to display and glamorise their supposed activities and achievements. However, it has also unwittingly given employers an opportunity to pry into the personal (and at times very personal) affairs of their prospective employees through the practice of cyber-vetting. Social media users should take note. They should think very carefully before they post, tweet or upload a photograph as their future employer may be watching and to paraphrase US Chief Judge Alex Kozinski, removing something from the Internet is about as easy as removing urine from a swimming pool! Dr Brenda Berkelaar of Purdue University, who completed a PhD on cyber-vetting, described the practice as: “when organizations use information from search engines or social networking communities to evaluate job candidates.” In its simplest form, cyber-vetting is the examination by employers of the digital footprint ...