Digital Dirt

Publishing content on the Internet for others to read and talk about has never been easier. Blogs, commenting tools, social networking sites and social bookmarking sites have all risen in popularity. Some of this user-generated content attracts significant attention and traffic.

Whenever you publish text or images—post a comment, write an article, or upload a picture for others to see—you leave an imprint of yourself on the Internet. This imprint is often more permanent and lasting than many people realize, often revealing itself months and years later upon doing a Google search on your name or during other browsing activities. Whether you realize it or not, every trace you leave behind on the Internet is a measure of your personal character and might reflect positively or negatively upon you.

A notable point to consider is that employers increasingly use search engines to quickly do a search on the names of prospective employees (an unofficial but convenient form of a background check). Career coaches at ExecuNet  say these searches potentially help or hurt a candidate, depending on whether the candidate's marathon time results and volunteer activity are found or offensive blog comments and photographs of misbehavior at a neighborhood picnic. Unfortunately for the job applicant, this type of background check is not covered by the disclosure requirements of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), which only covers background checks done by a third party. Since the employer is doing the check itself, the law does not require disclosure to the applicant. Perhaps most unsettling, the employer does not have any legal obligation to tell the applicant that the Internet search led to their disqualification.

Anything that you say or do on the Internet stays in the “digital graveyard” for a very long time. Therefore, it pays to be careful about what you post. Keep this in mind when publishing content, posting comments, uploading photos and doing other activities of self-expression online.

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