Devoted to Corporate Attorneys, Corporate Lawyers, and Corporate Counsel

The following is not meant to be legal advice.

Social networking sites present an issue on privacy and employment decision based on what a person does at his/her own time outside of work.  What someone puts up on the Internet, such as in a personal web site, on MySpace, FaceBook, or other sharing site, may go towards the person’s character or judgment.  It is not illegal to making employment decisions based on what the employer sees a person does outside of work.  For instance, an employer may have good reason not to hire someone who posts work gossip on a blog because the employer may have confidentiality requirements. 

Another developing employment law area are background checks.  Because employers are doing more background checks, people might consider checking their credit histories to make sure that the information that credit reporting firms such as Experian have the correct information for them.  Sometimes Experian might report inaccurate information by linking people with the same or similar names together.  Then, a person might have in his/her credit report information such as address, inquiry checks, credit items that do not belong to him/her.  There are privacy issues involving background checks.