Want a security clearance? Feds will now check your Facebook and Twitter first

a reply to: ColdWisdom

How is this a problem? Every time we have an applicant pass a phone interview the first thing we do is search all records of them in social media. You want to know what kind of person is coming to work for you.

We had one guy apply for a jr sys admin role. He did great on the phone interview, but his Instagram account was public and he was an aspiring white rapper complete with cash and guns on his profile. Paaassssss....

a reply to: raymundoko

So Ray, what would you do if you sat down face-to-face to interview someone and you left the interview with a great impression of the applicant? Meaning you feel like that individual was certainly (by all appearances) qualified for the position. But then you go and check all the basic social media outlets and you find nothing, nada. What do you do? Do you automatically disqualify that person from the position because they don't have a public identity in FB, or Instagram?

My job doesn't require me to have social media, and I do pretty well for myself now. And I've been stalked before (it's not fun!) so add that to the list of reasons why I will never get a FB.

a reply to: ColdWisdom

So, let me see if I have this right. They won't ask for passwords, and they won't look at anything that isn't public, and they won't ask for "handles". They will simply trust that anyone applying doesn't have anything they don't make public?

Really??

One, I don't believe for a moment that they won't just hack in (or, in some cases, be invited in by unscrupulous site owners that don't respect privacy.....), and get whatever data they want.

Two, anyone with half a brain would simply not make public anything they didn't want to share. Heck, I don't make my FB posts (the very few there are) public - they are for friends only. If I had a twitter account, I'd just not share whatever handle I chose.

The way this is stated, it would be virtually useless, save for the most foolish of bad guys, and those would be caught anyway, by virtue of being so foolish.

There is indeed something off about this.

a reply to: LadyGreenEyes

Glad to see I'm not the only one that thinks that there is something off about all this.

originally posted by: ColdWisdom
a reply to: LadyGreenEyes

Glad to see I'm not the only one that thinks that there is something off about all this.

It smells fishy to me! Too sensible on the surface, and nothing new, as you stated, and illogical when you get to the details!

How more people don't see this, I don't know!

a reply to: ColdWisdom

I like to read your news stories

the only people scared of this are those that go on tirades against race and religion via social media.
don't quite see the problem myself.
if someone is so braindead to post something that would revoke security clearance, they did it to themselves.

people need more responsibility, 'anonymity' does not give the right to hate speech.

a reply to: ColdWisdom

Speaking as someone who has an old friend who is showing signs of mental ultra-whackiness (right wing lunacy and white supremacy to the point where they mentioned an American 'Voortrek' as a 'solution' to the 'problems' now facing America) on Facebook I am not surprised by this. There are some right lunatics out there at the moment.

a reply to: AngryCymraeg

Lunacy & ignorance aren't confined to any one ideology. Lunacy & ignorance transcend all society & culture. They are inherent to our species.

originally posted by: ColdWisdom
a reply to: AngryCymraeg

Lunacy & ignorance aren't confined to any one ideology. Lunacy & ignorance transcend all society & culture. They are inherent to our species.

Yes, but this friend of mine used to be a very sane and settled person. All I seem to get from them these days are diatribes about how liberals = unpatriotic, unintelligent, scum, peppered with insults about how stupid I seem to have become, as well contempt for my wife, who comes from Oregon but who is apparently 'not a real American if they are a liberal'. Hate for anyone who doesn't share their views, as well as a furious anger, drips off the posts they send out. It's distressing me. I hate to lose a friend. Sadly in this case they are in the process of driving me away.

a reply to: AngryCymraeg

Some people just have too much time on their hands.

originally posted by: ColdWisdom
a reply to: AngryCymraeg

Some people just have too much time on their hands.

True. However, in this case the change is so great that I'm genuinely worried that it's mental illness.

a reply to: ColdWisdom

That's kind of a dumb question. If they were qualified for the position and didn't have anything stupid on the internet then they would get the job...

a reply to: raymundoko

I'm not asking if they didn't have anything stupid on the internet. I asked if they had NOTHING AT ALL in terms of social media, but they were definitely qualified based on the face to face interview. What then would you do?

a reply to: ColdWisdom

wow I have not heard this on the news. what happens when you don't have a facebook or twitter account? will they demand you get one?