Facebook follies

Last night I took part in a debate on the issue of privacy, hosted by law firm Minter Ellison. While I took a slightly different approach to some of the panellists (I jokingly described myself as a professional privacy invader) one of the most interesting points raised was about the rise of social networking sites such as Facebook, and the incredible amount of personal information users are prepared to share.

The rise of Facebook in this country has been nothing short of spectacular – the average Australian now spends almost 30% of their time on the internet on the social networking site, according to figures from Neilsen.

In October, the average Australian user spent 27.2 hours browsing online and 7.55 hours of that was spent on Facebook.

In figures released yesterday, Facebook revealed its Australian users in October uploaded 80 million pictures, wrote 32 million wall posts and 45 million status updates.

The mood of many of those attending the privacy debate last night was best summed up as: Do these people really understand what they are doing by uploading all this info?

A funny photo from last weekend’s party might be amusing to your friends, but how will it look to your employer, or a prospective employer? And how will it look in 20 years time, when you’re in the running to become chairman of an ASX-listed company?

Leaving aside the issue of whether or not people are tempting fate by publishing pictures of themselves in compromising situations, let’s look at this issue from the point of view of the employer.

Business owners suddenly have this vast, ever-expanding treasure trove of information on their employees. They can find out information about their habits, their background, their home life, their hobbies and interests, their friends and their families.

Do we take a peek into this magical window on our employees or prospective employees? Or do we respect their privacy and look away.

Admit it – the temptation to use Facebook to spy on workers is huge and given the huge costs of hiring mistakes, it would seem to make pretty good business sense.

But there are some clear issues. As we reported last year, lawyers have warned that collecting this sort of personal information can trigger privacy issues. Collecting information not related to a person’s employment could even mean you have breached the Privacy Act.

There are also potential legal problems in not hiring a candidate based on a bit of information you’ve picked up on Facebook.

Despite the legal and ethical concerns, there are practical ones too. A photo or comment on Facebook can easily be taken out of context (it can be hard to spot a joke, for example). And if your staff member is doing a brilliant job, should you even care that they party like Keith Richards on the weekend?

In other words, employers should tread extremely carefully before they open Facebook’s Pandora’s box. If a staff members’ performance starts to slip, do the old-fashioned thing and talk to them before you rush off, look at Facebook and jump to the wrong conclusion.

When you’re hiring, thoroughly check references and look at examples of their previous work. If you’re in doubt, get them in for another interview.

Finally, my message for anyone about to post a stupid photo on Facebook is simple. Before you do it, think about whether you’d be willing to stand in a room and show the same photo to a group of your family, friends and colleagues. If the answer is no, don’t upload.