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Wait. What do you want the government to do? Tell businesses that they can't access free PUBLIC information that people VOLUNTARILY put out in PUBLIC?
I think it would be more invasive if the government got involved in stuff like this. If you don't want employers in your personal business, don't put it online.
Well the issue is that my personal business is just that, PERSONAL. It has ZERO to do with how well or how poorly I'd do my job. Simply enough, EVEN IF IT'S ONLINE, what I do outside of 8-5 is absolutely not my boss' business or prerogative to make hiring/firing decisions. Otherwise you are essentially in prison unable to be "the real you" during your own time because your boss essentially owns you 24/7.
If I go to a strip club--I don't, but still--if I go to a strip club or get sloppy drunk at a bowling alley, of course I'm going to want to take photos of it, because it's the most natural thing in the world to do to take photos of your life adventures for remembering it later. I'm going to post them online, probably under an alias, because I want people who are browsing photos for their viewing pleasure to see photos of other people living their life. The whole point of the Internet is that I can see what everyone else is doing, and they're all a "face in the crowd" to me. I don't want to be limited to only seeing what my friends to, and in a secretive way. I am not trying to have my employer look at photos of my life, and even if he or she does stumble across them, the response ought to be "I don't have any interest in what they do outside of work, so long as they behave AT WORK, that's all I'm interested in knowing about."
If a teacher wants to drink wine and sunbathe topless in France on her vacation, why should she have to be practically "underground" and "private" about that & restrict those photos to only her closest of friends? Online within Flickr she can easily be a "face in the crowd." If you go digging through that trying to find out about somebody, you're just being out & out nosy. What relevance does it have anyway? If she can teach at the school, she can teach. Period. She shouldn't have to be all secretive about her life of pleasure because the principal the school or parents of her students won't approve. For a person to go tell another's boss about what someone is doing outside of work is nothing less than "telling tales out of school." Implicit in that expression is the understanding that school-life and outside school life are totally separate and one has nothing to do with the other. Substitute "work" in place of "school" and that's what you have here.
For it to be any other way is to be practically owned by your boss 24/7 based on the whole nonsense of "what you do outside the office reflects on us & affects our image" blah blah blah, of course that goes for "visible" or "high profile" people like the vice-president in charge of marketing for Ford Motor Company etc, but shouldn't apply for "everyday" workers, not even paralegals at a law firm etc. The same goes for credit reports, too--I remember well years ago an employee who did VERY WELL at her job and who was very responsible nonetheless getting collections calls at her job & she was livid over that intrusion. Regardless, not once did it cause me to think less of her within the OFFICE. Any notion that such made her less capable of a worker was the most laughable notion. We need a return to those days.
Chances are given that a private-setting Facebook account can most likely hacked and viewed by someone who knows the ins and outs of the the FB website.
Plus, FB changes what is private and what is not and so many people do not keep up with their settings given how confusing it is even for a more savvy user. So for an average someone who thinks their posting on FB are somewhat private, more than likely the settings may not be updated to reflect that idea. All this goes back to posting on social media what you don't mind "the world seeing," so to speak.
Wait... You mean it's a bad idea to broadcast everything you think, say and do to the entire internet? Shocker?
I totally disagree. Maybe it's because I've been online since 1997 when "going online" was something you did in spurts as an alternative activity via dial-up & the basement computer vs how it is now with DSL & smartphones, but to me, the Internet, and especially venting in forums, is an "alternate reality" that has absolutely zero relevance to real life. Posting Flickr photos as "badgurl73" or whatever is NOT the same as broadcasting them to the world under a real name. For such reasons I totally disagree with any move sites make towards compelling people to use real names vs aliases. Regardless to me a person going on vacation & posting their topless in France sunbathing shots to Flickr as "badgurl73" is NOT the same as doing something right in front of your boss at work or at a work-related function. Regardless, it shouldn't be grounds for being fired from your job, because it was done after hours & is thus irrelevant to your job 100%.
Regardless, it used to be the case that everyone understood that what you did outside of work was absolutely irrelevant and not at all a factor in getting or not getting a job, and certainly not relevant towards KEEPING a job. It was a given & universally thought in most cases, even high profile ones in some cases. I think of NBA basketball player Dennis Rodman who was very well known for his off-court antics, but during his time with the Chicago Bulls anyway, the response from his coach Phil Jackson was basically "I don't care what you do off-court, so long as you do what's right on the court." I still think it is in MOST cases, just not as much as it used to be, if these stories paint an accurate picture vs being "select few" cases.
"You represent the company with your actions, even after working hours." Bullfeathers. My personal time is MY personal time, not the company's. You agree to pay me for services delivered and/or work performed and for appropriate behavior in YOUR building in YOUR time. I do NOT give consent for you to make it your business what I'm doing when I'm NOT on your time and when I am on MY time, not even if I post it online.
At my last job 3 years ago, the receptionist was a hardcore party girl who even once posted a photo of her 2 year old child holding an empty can of beer as her Facebook profile photo. As silly as that perhaps was, no one at our place of work dared think that going snitching to her boss & showing that photo to them with the "is this the type of behavior you want your employees engaging in" type of query was the way to go. As long as she did her job at work with professionalism, which she did, her after-hours party life was of zero relevance. It ONLY became their business if it caused her to be late for work and/or call in sick a lot.
I work to provide quality work and services to my employer during 8-5 Monday-Friday and at their premises I'm expected to behave a certain way and carry myself a certain way. Fine, no problem. However, it is none of your concern, even if you know about it, even if I post about it, what I do outside that box. I fart and belch a lot during my free time, even in restaurants. So what? If you are my boss & you happen to run into me in public while doing this, big deal--I'm not at work right now, you're not my boss right now, you're just another member of society at large to me. You really expect me to act all proper like I'm visiting the Buckingham Palace & dining with Kate Middleton just because you're my boss and you see me after hours, or because I work for your company & you think that reflects badly on your company?
Yeah, right. You're not buying me, you're only hiring me. You don't own me, I'm not your 24/7 slave to dance the way you want and act the way you want 24/7. At work, I'm yours--after-hours, that is MY life. Butt out of it, even if/when I post about it.
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