Employers check candidates online
Employers now log onto Facebook and MySpace to screen job applicants.
Online social networks which often include detailed information about a person, including pictures, are just another tool being used to separate candidates in the competitive job market.
Freelance technology journalist Bill Thompson said: “Four or five years ago if you applied for a job and the company phoned up your best friend asking what you were really like it would have been an invasion of your privacy…that would be indefensible.
“And yet it doesn’t seem indefensible for them to look 
through the traces that you may have left online, but it’s
part of the change the network has brought about.”
Despite some users feeling these measures are unfair
and information found might not portray their true
character experts say it’s always been a common practice.
Internet psychologist Graham Jones said: “Employers have
always used a variety of methods of determining employment.
“Equally, they have also "asked around" within the business and elsewhere for information on job candidates. I see no reason why that should be unfair in any way. It's what employers have been doing for years.”
The blurring of private and work life because of these online social networks has resulted in sackings and job discrimination claims.
Although Mr Jones added: “this notion that there is this separation of work and social life has never existed.”
“I think there are cases where that line is crossed, I know there have been cases of companies which will ask someone from the same university or college to check someone out on Facebook because they have more access to more private information,” added Mr Thompson.
Facebook and MySpace users have privacy options that allow them to control who has access to their information.
Click here to hear Bill Thompson's comments