Splicetoday

Digital
Jul 22, 2008, 06:54AM

Facebook: The Perfect Way To Lose Your Job And Get Abducted

When  you make your drinking, drug, and other habits publicly available on Facebook, there are bound to be repercussions. More and more employers are using the internet technology to learn more about possible employees. Unfortunately, so are stalkers and sex predators.

Just a friendly reminder: Be careful about what you put on Facebook.

Last week an 18-year-old Philadelphian decided it would be a good idea to brag about his drug use, and use his mugshot as his profile picture on MySpace after he killed one person and injured another with his vehicle while he was under the influence. As a result, police officers attained a search warrant and confiscated multiple items, including his computer.

While this is an extreme example, it shows that anything put online, whether on Facebook, MySpace or a blog, is not private.
So I decided to see what incriminating evidence and private information I could find on Facebook about people I don't know.

The easiest and most obvious is underage drinking. I hope none of you are looking for an internship or job anytime soon. And to the girl who listed "smoking pot" as one of her activities, don't bother. According to CollegeRecruiters.com, 5 percent of employers now check Facebook and 77 percent check the Internet during background checks.

It's not unreasonable to think that more employers will check their employees' Facebook pages as the site continues to gain in popularity. We occasionally see stories about teachers who lose their jobs due to pictures of them drinking or dressing in a way their school district deems inappropriate.

I then transitioned my point of view from an employer to a stalker. How many people could I find that have "drinking" or "bars" as one of their interests, and also list their phone number or address?

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