Walking along the sidewalks near our office in midtown Manhattan can be a nightmare. The concept of “personal space” is lost on fellow New Yorkers, and I understand why. There are too many people for such a small space, and just like driving, if you don’t assert yourself and make your own openings, you won’t get anywhere.
Compound that with people who have their heads buried in their phones and the simple act of walking becomes intolerable. People are so engrossed in their phones—tweeting, posting to Facebook, taking pictures for Instagram—that they are literally killing themselves and others when driving or crossing streets.
The plus side of our phone obsession
While that immersion in social media is an irritant on my daily commute, it’s a huge advantage for me as a researcher. Social media is a huge part of people’s lives and can be a rich source of information for those who know how to monitor and mine this data:
- Retailers use it for targeted marketing
- Governments monitor and analyze it for threat analysis
- Investigators count on it to gather information beyond traditional public records
- Employers rely on it for employment screening
But this valuable tool comes with some cautions. This article will address the issues concerning investigators and employers.
A treasure trove for investigators
Social media can help an investigator develop a profile that goes well beyond traditional background information, including:
- Mode of living
- Interests and hobbies
- Corporate, organizational, and personal affiliations and connections
- Locations (past, present and future)
- Political and social beliefs
- Property ownership
This wealth of information can be useful for litigation support, asset searches, skip tracing, executive protection and background checks. We’ve made plenty of cases, not from public record searches, but from what the subjects themselves say on social media.
(As an aside, it still amazes me how lax people are with their security and privacy settings. Even if the target of an investigation has locked down his or her accounts, the person’s friends and family may not have. Additionally, people tend to forget that something they posted years ago could work against them today.)
Legal landmines for employers
Employers and consumer reporting agencies may also include social media as part of employment-related background checks. After all, people often divulge a wealth of information about themselves that can be valuable to a prospective employer, such as drug use, sexual harassment, racism, gang affiliations and violence.
Unfortunately, that’s where potential liabilities can happen.
For example, you might not be looking at information that was actually posted by the subject: someone may have created a profile in their name, possibly without them even knowing it, or their account could have been hacked. Information posted by a family member or friend might be biased or inaccurate.
Taking action against someone, or making a hiring or other decision based on that information, can cause legal problems. Furthermore, when conducting these searches, make sure you don’t obtain protected class information, such as age, sexual orientation and religious views. Simply having that information in your possession, even if not a part of a hiring or firing decision, can be detrimental if an individual claims that it was used to discriminate against them. Defending against such a claim could be costly in terms of time, attorney fees and reputation.
In short, social media can provide an insider’s view and a three-dimensional profile of a person if you know how to properly obtain that information. However, understand which information you can and can’t obtain—or use—to make a hiring (or other) decision.
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