Sit down. I need to tell you something, and you may not like it.
I don’t have a Facebook account. I can’t read Twitter. My LinkedIn profile is like an untended yard. The last status update I had was in a hospital in 2002. “Social media” sounds to me like a sarcastic term for theater.
I hope you can still “Like” me.
While bigger technologies are working to make the world smaller, I’ve remained a holdout on the social media bandwagon. My friends constantly ask me when I’m going to get on Facebook, and I realize that by not participating I’m missing out on any number of invites and in-jokes. Nearly everyone I know agrees with Facebook president and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who reputedly “doesn’t believe” in privacy, and they think I just don’t get it.
The reason I’m not on Facebook is because I do get it.
Last week, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) dropped an investigation into Social Intelligence Corp., a Santa Barbara, California-based startup with a unique business model: they provide background checks based on your social media presence and web history. The FTC found that, under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), third party companies like Social Intelligence Corp. are allowed to comb the Internet for information, images, comments, blogs and anything else of interest to a potential employer. The FCRA further allows these third party companies to retain any data discovered for seven years.
This is, in essence, a credit check on your personality. Employers can just as easily turn you down for one out-of-context comment as they could for a years-old bankruptcy filing.
There are a few caveats, of course: an employer looking to investigate a job applicant via Social Intelligence Corp. must first get the subject’s permission for the search, and must report to them any damaging information they uncover. But let’s be honest, what job seeker in our post-recession economy will say “no” to someone offering a position? How many employers fully divulge their reasons for turning down a candidate?
“I don’t have anything to hide” is the usual response given when the Big Brother specter is mentioned. True or not, I think it misses the bigger concern. Social media sites offer amazing personal branding opportunities, allowing people to craft themselves into how they want the world to perceive them. They also allow other people to craft that image without consent. From a picture photoshopped as a joke, to an inappropriately tagged photo on a friend’s profile, to an untrue rumor maliciously tweeted and re-tweeted, there are so many ways to accidentally or deliberately smear someone. Scrub all you want: once your online image has been dirtied, it can never be clean again. The FCRA allows information to be saved for seven years, and the Internet doesn’t forget.
All of the above scenarios are user-focused. The other, scarier concern here is discrimination. The Forbes article above mentions a Colorado company that wanted to use Social Intelligence’s services to screen out homosexual applicants. Social Intelligence refused to work with that business, but other third parties could offer the same service without asking questions. What if a company did a background check to filter out certain religions? What about races? Taste in music or movies or friends? People readily provide all of this information on social media sites, and it would be easy for unscrupulous companies to use this data for unsavory purposes.
Of course, this is a lot of paranoia and conjecture, and it’s possible none of it will happen. Everything is a “what if” scenario right now, and it’s too early to know the ramifications of social media’s redefinition of privacy. Maybe Zuckerberg will be right, and social networks will usher in an era of social openness and honesty.
Facebook, Twitter and the like are all extremely useful tools, and one day I’m sure their benefits will outweigh any concerns I have. But that day isn’t today, and with the FTC’s implicit approval of Social Intelligence’s business model, that day is further away than it was a week ago. Until then, I hope we can still be friends, if not Friends.
