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ScienceDaily (July 9, 2012) Social networking websites offer a potentially large amount of personal information to organizations about job applicants. However, organizations that implement online screening practices through sites like Facebook may reduce their attractiveness to applicants and current employees.

Previous studies show up to 65 percent of organizations screen applicants through social networking websites, said Will Stoughton, a doctoral candidate in industrial and organizational psychology at North Carolina State University.

Employers claim they screen social networks to find the best applicants and weed out the bad ones -- and it can be easy to find personal information. They typically look on sites like Facebook or Google for pictures of alcohol or drug-related use and remarks about previous employers or co-workers, Stoughton said.

Organizations have even been known to ask interns who have access to Facebook to send a friend request to an applicant. Past research has demonstrated a 50 percent chance that an individual will accept a stranger's friend request, he said.

Stoughton, along with NCSU coauthors Lori Foster Thompson and Adam Meade, conducted a study on the effects of screening in the workplace and presented their research at the 27th Annual SIOP Conference in San Diego in April.

In the study, 175 students applied for a fictitious temporary job they believed to be real and were later informed they were screened. The student-applicants said they would be less likely to take a job offer after learning they were being screened. They perceived the action to reflect poorly on the organization's fairness, trust and treatment of employees. They also felt their privacy was invaded, Stoughton said.

While organizations may conduct social network screening to find the best applicants, they don't always accomplish the intended goal, the study found. In fact, the social network screening process actually reduced an organization's attractiveness for the applicant and likely the incumbent worker, Stoughton said.

"By doing this, you assume the applicants that organizations end up choosing are more conscientious, but no studies show that these individuals are any better," Stoughton said. "They could actually be losing better applicants."

Current employees could also be impacted. If employees see the organization looking at their social networking site, they might be likely to leave because their perception of the companies' fairness and trust has changed, Stoughton said.

Social network screening isn't new. Stoughton said he began his research in 2007 when social networking was just becoming popular. He said he knew the possibility of electronic monitoring could grow along with networking.

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Social network screening of employees can make organizations unattractive to applicants

By JOEL T. EMLEN The McLane Law Firm

A: Most often, yes, because when it comes to social networking sites, there is little that is truly personal or private.

Social networking sites have over one billion users worldwide. Facebook alone, is approaching one billion and has more than 150 million in the United States (an estimated 40 percent of the U.S. population). Facebook users in the United States spend more than 50 billion minutes per month on the site the equivalent of 100,000 years engaging in a whole host of activities, such as posting pictures and videos, giving status updates, or making comments on their friends' Facebook walls. Twitter is not far behind with more than 100 million U.S. accounts and in excess of 400 million tweets per day worldwide. Given that these sites are social, it should come as no surprise that users often do not think critically about the content of their posts or believe the information is personal and private because only friends can see it.

Courts, however, are finding that parties in lawsuits must disclose information posted on social media sites, and some courts are compelling parties to turn over their log-in information to opposing counsel. The information subject to disclosure may include publicly accessible portions of the site, as well as what is available only to friends. But if your friends tag you in any posting, that information is shared with others, not just your friends.

Generally, for a party to obtain information available only to friends, there must be some evidence found in the public view of that party's profile that is relevant to the case. Of course, if your friend is the opposing party, this limitation would not apply, and it raises the question especially in the context of employment and workers compensation disputes about whether to be connected on these sites with co-workers and supervisors.

Social networking sites let us communicate more easily with more people than ever before. With the click of a button or the touch of an app, we can connect or reconnect with family and friends and share photographs and videos of birthdays, holidays, cookouts and our most recent vacation. But you also must know that information posted to these sites is not personal and private and may become public and shared with others in a lawsuit. Staying vigilant and scrutinizing this information is a must. Joel Emlen can be reached at joel.emlen@mclane.com.

Know the Law is a bi-weekly column sponsored by The McLane Law Firm.

We invite your questions of business law. Questions and ideas for future columns should be addressed to: Know the Law, The McLane Law Firm, P.O. Box 326, Manchester, NH 03105-0326 or emailed to knowthelaw@mclane.com. Know the Law provides general legal information, not legal advice. We recommend that you consult a lawyer for guidance specific to your particular situation.

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A Question of Law Information posted on social networking sites isn't private

Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn have all carved out very powerful positions for themselves in the social networking space, so it was inevitable that eventually they would start to bump up hard against each other.

And its Twitter that seems to be making some powerful enemies fast. At least thats the interpretation Business Insider is making of the recent Facebook/Yahoo patent settlement deal.

In case you missed it, Facebook and the struggling portal company appear to have come to terms over the patent argument kicked off by former CEO Scott Thompson who lost his job a few months back after it was revealed he had been padding his CV.

Now, BI has read between the lines of this recent deal. BI explained, Buried in the press release announcing the settlement of Yahoo's big patent-infringement lawsuit was this interesting nugget: Yahoo and Facebook will also work together to bring Yahoos large media event coverage to Facebook users by collaborating on social integrations on the Yahoo site. Large media event coverage: Where have we heard that before?

The article asserted that this is a direct challenge to Twitters stated objective to aggressively pursue coverage of large media events.

Twitter is finding its not a good idea to poke a giant in the eye, even when youre growing heavier by the day yourself. Remember only last week, Twitter pulled the plug on its tweet stream cross sharing deal with LinkedIn.

Business Insider said, Twitter and Yahoo inked in a series of partnerships in 2010. How long before Twitter flips Yahoo the bird, too?

If youre reading this story, the good news is you can stop right now. The FBI is shutting down the domains affected by the DNSChanger malware, reported Mashable. The malware sent users to internet sites running advertisements for the Trojans creators, and for a while they made out like bandits until they were caught and arrested also like bandits.

Rather than rip out the boxes and compromise the Web experience of almost 300,000 affected machines, the FBI has spent months warning people to check their systems, including providing a simple site for consumers to see if they were affected. We could point you to those tools, but whats the point? If you can read this, you wont need them, and if you cant well... you get the picture.

Gigaom also gets in on the action, by pointing out that this is not the first internet doomsday scenario by a long shot. Under the headline 5 Doomsdays from the Internet's past, the site recounts stories of the Melissa virus in 1999, the infamous Y2k bug, also in 2000 the I Love You virus, the 2009 the April Fools day Conficker worm, and finally the 2010 Here You Have virus. Its worth a read, if only to brush up on your trivia when Christmas party season rolls around.

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Monday Grok: There can be only one — social networking’s silverbacks getting tetchy

NEW YORK: Social networking giant Facebook plans to engage in a new type of mobile advertising based on the apps used by consumers, The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday on its website. The social network, which has 900 million users, would use its Facebook Connect feature which lets millions log into applications using their Facebook ID and password to track consumers apps, and tailor ads accordingly, it said. Facebook which is based in Menlo Park, California may also attempt to track how people use the apps, but a final decision has not been made, the newspaper said, quoting unnamed sources familiar with the companys plans. The plan is likely to stoke privacy fears, as the initiative would go further than current mobile-ad networks, which track ads viewed by consumers on their mobile phones web browser, the report said. One of the biggest challenges Facebook must confront is its difficulties in generating revenues from smartphones, with more and more users accessing the social networks from mobile devices. That factor led analysts to downgrade their forecasts for the group before its stock market debut in May, which ended up being less than a success. At that time, Facebook shares were offered at $ 38. Shares closed Friday at $ 31.73. Google Inc and Facebook Inc are now neck-and-neck in the race to become the top US online display advertising players, with the search leader expected to edge past the No. 1 social network next year, according to research house eMarketer. Both Internet giants dethroned Yahoo Inc last year, deposing the longtime dominant force in display ads on websites. Both Internet giants dethroned Yahoo Inc last year, deposing the longtime dominant force in display ads on websites.

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Facebook to target ads based on app usage

Sunday, July 8, 2012

KEEPING up with the social networking phenomenon in the Philippines with the continued growth in the use of Twitter among Filipinos, Globe Telecom launched its newest offer to give subscribers free access to Twitter on their mobile phones.

Available to Globe Prepaid and TM subscribers with Internet-capable handsets, the Free Twitter promo is accessible via mobile.twitter.com. The promo allows users to use the main features of Twitter through their mobile phones such as posting tweets and re-tweets, following friends, and editing privacy settings.

Have something to report? Tell us in text, photos or videos.

To enjoy Free Twitter on mobile, subscribers can text FREE TWITTER to 8888 for free**. Upon successful registration to the promo, subscribers will receive a confirmation message which contains the link to the service. Users can also opt to go to their mobile phones internet browser and type http://mobile.twitter.com to use the service.

Subscription to Free Twitter is valid until July 31.

In February, Globe Prepaid and TM subscribers got free access to Facebook on mobile.

Facebook and Twitter are two of the most widely-used social networking sites among Filipinos.

According to a study done by global social media data intelligence and research firm Semiocast in January 2012, the Philippines ranks 8th in the world with the most number of Twitter users with over eight million Filipinos accessing the social networking site.

With the new offer, Globe said it strengthens its position as leader in mobile Internet by staying proactive in responding to the needs of its subscribers, as evidenced in the Yahoo! Net Index 2011 where it was voted as the most popular service provider for mobile internet services.

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Globe offers users free Twitter access