In light of Allison’s comment I decided to post this sooner than later to avoid New Year Party fiascos.
Apparently common sense isn’t that common. Get your drunk, high, both and any other compromising photos off of facebook, off of myspace and off of any other social networking site on the web! You’re on a social networking website where people can look you up by your birth name and get all of your personal information and you’re posting photos with beers, weed, lap dancing, and other questionable activity. Be weary of your internet footprint because privacy settings are not always effective. Employers look at your photos and profiles as a screening process during recruitment so keep your footprint as clean as possible. There seems to be a common misconception floating around leading unsuspecting students to believe that simply because one’s privacy settings are programmed to bar anyone outside of their friends and networks from accessing their profiles which isn’t always true. While posting pictures of inebriated hall mates underage with red cups in hand is simply idiotic here are a few points to consider before uploading incriminating Kodak moments.
1. Just because you programmed your friends as the only viewers of your photos does not mean no one else can see them. If you were tagged in a photo and the person who tagged you has looser privacy settings then your photo is still public.
2. Untagging a photo that is still posted to someone else’s profile does not mean no one else has it or might find it elsewhere, even off of social networking websites. If you can recall the dreaded photos from black-face racist parties in Connecticut and Texas, those photos were originally posted on a social networking website and were later removed however, the photos can be found in a mere google search.
3. There is no such thing as privacy on the internet. You can’t trust anything you can’t control. Anybody on your friends list can innocently share a photo that would have otherwise been private to someone off your friends list and it will be posted in their shared items, mini feed and even profile for the world to see.
4. It doesn’t matter how well you look on paper, a slip up on the internet can deter employers from offering a position, even internships. Did you know the CEO and head of Human Resources at The Washington Post both have facebook accounts used to screen prospective employees? More and more companies are utilizing myspace, facebook and internet search engines as background checks. Remember, companies have interns who they utilize to screen students and the likelihood of their interns being in your network or having friends in your network is quite high.
5. Just because you’re old enough to drink does not make drunk photo albums okay. Your comments, your profile, your pictures—they’re all used to judge your character so legal or illegal too much of anything will reflect badly on your behalf.
6. Google your name. If there’s something questionable in the search results that could tarnish your reputation, remove it immediately. Google is the easiest and quickest way for anyone to pull your personal information so see to it that your private life stays private.
Face it, employers and college admissions have the right to search prospective employees and students on the internet. Anything that appears in a search engine or social networking website is public information and it is likely that when registering for said sites you confirmed that you agreed with their privacy policy or lack there of so be aware of everything affiliated with your reputation.
The game has changed. The internet allows anyone to gather up loads of information on you that you innocently provided on your myspace page. Don’t be stupid –the days of posting profile pictures of your underage affair with a Bud lite is so high school anyway.
