What is Digg?50 Comments
- siamuse, on 10/11/2007, -0/+28Reminds me of the credit check companies. They turn you down on loan applications based on out of date and faulty databases.
If this really is the way of the future, then we're all going to have to waste even more precious time ensuring various 3rd party databases are straight. Yeesh!
Some useful advice: "The employer must obtain your written authorization, before the background check is conducted. Your signature on the job application will usually suffice." So always read the employers small print. Interviewer beware. - itdood, on 10/11/2007, -0/+20I recently got a new job pending the background check. The background check company matched me with a convicted felon based on last name, first name, year of birth, and a county I used to work in only. They went back to the employer and said I had to felony convictions.
The HR person called me with this, certain that I had 2 felony convictions. They told the hiring manager this as-well. I had to clear this up on my own. I had to the the DA and the HR person on the phone together. The DA was very upset with the HR person, clearly stating that they did not match social security #, birth date, address.. The DA told me to get a lawyer.
The HR person cleared the background check but it was never right there. I have a the cleanest record you can imagine, yet I still got mis-matched and almost lost my job (I had already resigned my other position though perhaps I could have gone back). My name is not common at all. I found out that the there are multiple data collections agencies collecting data at the county level on up (Because that's how arrest and conviction records are kept). There is no single standard repository. It's frigin dangerous. Stay plugged in if you ever need a background check. Something can come up in these and take you out. - Tigrou, on 10/11/2007, -0/+19 You ever asked the government to change a document that's incorrect. It can literally take years.
- Tigrou, on 10/11/2007, -0/+18Online Reputations are becoming more and more important. In the old days, you knew your neighbours and they knew THEIR neighbours. Now we're jumping from social networks over garden fences to documents that are online. Now, kids are getting sued by schoolboards for Facebook accounts, and governments have info up on you too. No system is perfect, and errors happen. It's the speed of turn around of fixing those errors that make the difference -- and that's not an area government excel at.
- 1laradream, on 10/11/2007, -1/+16Situation: You don`t like some info about you on a web site. It`s showing in the searches and you want it removed.
Question: How easy is it to get removed? Not very.
Difference here? Most diggers are web savvy and know what shows when they search their own names / personal brand. (If you don`t, I suggest you stop reading this and Google yourself right now! ;o)
When it comes to less visible info - like in this article, then we`re less concenrned. Why? This stuff is likely scarier, as:
1. How many employers Google you before an interview? Few in my expereince.
2. How much weight do employers give to their external databasis (for which they paid money, so it must be valuable!)? Regrettably too much. - surfing, on 10/11/2007, -0/+14You think you have it rough, my name is Charles Manson.
- 11Heather, on 10/11/2007, -1/+13Scary! "Employers set up blind Post Office boxes, blind email addresses, or a Help-Wanted ad with no company name, to hide their identity." I've seen a number of "PO Box" job ads. If you don't check through the background reports, you'll never know if you didn't get that job because of it.
Dugg! - inactive, on 10/11/2007, -0/+11You're lucky they told you at all. Most of the time, you'd just keep getting turned down for jobs and have no idea why.
- capiCrimm, on 10/11/2007, -0/+9does it matter, though? Not agreeing to the background check is only going to not get you the job. So you might as well sign, be honest, and hope for the best.
- santaliqueur, on 10/11/2007, -0/+8Change the name from "Clinton" to any well-known republican's name, and you'd be dugg up sky high.
- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -0/+8Good thing I've never had a job, HA!
- snoolyagain, on 10/11/2007, -0/+7This is what I worry about, what if you ... say... get a Comcast internet service and it has your name on the IP and they (obviously) keep a log of your activity forever. What if you visit every website and search term you can humanly think of including (insert politically incriminating term here) ... how to build a home NUKE, how to build your own reactor.... sex lives of bisexual pirannahs.... sex trade numbers of cash transactions for minors in prostitution in Bolivia.... cocaine processing made easy... CIA files on university professors... etc. etc... What if you just like to excavate topics and see what is out there?
Then, in 20 years if you decide to run for Mayor or Senate, can these records be accessed by those with power, those "in the know?"
Theoretically, that's what I worry about. It's not what is available via your name + search engine, it is what resides in server logs at the ISP broadband you pay for. Anyone know anything about this? I would really appreciate the advice because I think it affects how I use the net and doesn't it seem like psycho to be at your own home, paying for an isp connection, and wondering about if your every move is being recorded for ever and ever? - Chordonblue, on 10/11/2007, -0/+7I noted that this article was published in the U.K. so your mileage may vary concerning the advice given. A friend of mine was wrongfully dismissed for 'terroristic threats' a few months ago. On appeal, he won his unemployment, yet is having great difficulty finding a job because his old workplace marked him big time. More than likely, he will end up having to sue his old employer for disclosing that sort of info about him - on the grounds that he is finding it impossible to get work now.
- zimmermans, on 10/11/2007, -2/+7Lesson: don't work for a big corporation if you can help it; they're the ones with the resources to pull this ***** off and have people employed for the sole purpose of organizing and classifying as much information as possible regaring their production units --cough--ahem i mean employees.
- vonskippy, on 10/11/2007, -2/+7That's why you always make a "mistake" when filling out your SSN on a job app. When you get the job, THEN you tell HR that you noticed THEY made a mistake on your SSN and correct it.
- dgh1973, on 10/11/2007, -3/+7*****, the only employers that get this far in depth about your personal history ARE the government in most circumstances this extreme.
Most previous employers can't even disclose the fact that you were fired, legally they can only verify that you worked for them from start date X to end date Y.
Granted what an employer investigates can depend upon the responsibilities of the job, but let's face it... most people don't have jobs where lives or classified information or homeland security is at stake.
This is sheer paranoia. Note how it qualifies many of the points with "some employers do X". Yeah, some... like the NSA, CIA, DoD... - Error601, on 10/11/2007, -3/+7At least half the stuff they listed as employers checking are government files.
- deadlogic, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4try working for the government. what do you think they keep?
- patch6, on 10/11/2007, -1/+5The government is capable of far worse things than any non-governmental employer.
- GregR, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4It's spelled tilde and the symbol is ~ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilde)
don't know what you are going on about. - Stormflux, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4I dugg you up, but the fact is job applicants either sign the releases they're told to sign, or they don't get the job. It is not an equal-power conversation. The company holds most of the cards in this situation. All they have to do is not call the applicant back - they don't have to even explain why.
- Tigrou, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3surfing, if you're serious I share your pain. Different name, same problem.
I'm no Charles Manson, but I get the joy of sharing a name with the most famous mass murders in the US. Best part? I was just starting out in business when it happened, but every time I called that city EVERYONE took my calls. So I guess there are always some silver linings. - Snarfy, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3"I have nothing to hide, let 'em search........"
It's attitudes like yours that are making this country go straight to hell. - briancarnell, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2"How many employers Google you before an interview? Few in my expereince."
I'd say the answer is closer the majority today. If not, it soon will be. - Gerz1219, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Every time I get all paranoid about this sort of thing, I tell myself that people are no more or less ***** up than they were 50 years ago. Our lives are just more public. Employers know this. While they may have all these data mining tools at their disposal, they are essentially dealing with the same exact pool of applicants they were dealing with in decades past. If they looked too far into anyone's life, they'd find a reason not to hire them. But they can't turn down everybody, because they need to actually fill positions. Most employers will just look past a Myspace page that shows you doing a kegstand. They want to disqualify the guy that wrote bad checks in eight states.
- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Edit: Not sure why this posted twice... ^
- c0yote, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2I work for a fortune 500 tech company. It is regular practice for managers to use google, facebook and myspace to get info on people during the application/recruiting process. My team lead openly talks about times he had a candidate who looked good initially, but because of what he saw on the persons facebook he didn't offer them the job.
- DestroyFascism, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2I like the Marketers setting up a job list under multiple occupations and capturing all that information for free that they normally call you for...Email, Phone number, Address, DOB, Occupation, History, Hobbies, education man its a gold mine for telemarketers and worth a fortune....
- WoollyMittens, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2The presumptious *****. It might not even have been the same person. His kind makes me sick.
- Y0tsuya, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2It is now.
- snoolyagain, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Is it on record that I was thrown off of a Melissa Etheridge fan site when I said that while on tour she had stayed over at my house and left a pair of socks (still unlaundered) and that I would consider a motivated buyer?
- ahecht, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Unless the company runs a credit check, finds out that you don't exist, and rejects your application.
- anjori, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Those are called grave accents, you idiot.
- Dustmuffins, on 10/11/2007, -2/+3If we had a totally free market, Wal-Mart would run the world more so than it does now and Microsoft would have a much higher market share. There would be no FDA regulations on anything, people could sell a drug knowing full well it could kill some people. Don't complain until you contemplate your alternatives.
- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Solution: 1099.
Then as your own employer you can screw yourself, it's much more fun...... - cromus, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2Dugg for appropriate use of the apostrophe. 99% of digg would have totally ***** that up.
- dgig, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1No need to worry about it, it is kept, and can therefore be used in the future. BTW, the list of comments, including political ones, you made on Digg is readily available too. Of course most employers might not know who you are by your digg username...
- Spektr4, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2I second this. My employer doesn't do any of this stuff.
- gl77, on 03/31/2008, -1/+1moved to florida last year and every single job application i filled out (about a hundred) required my authorization to do a credit check...must be some sort of law down here since i have never run into that before moving here.
- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1Agreed.
My mom's an employer and hasn't done any of the stuff listed here. - crossers, on 07/17/2008, -0/+0Some people think that just because they have done nothing wrong, they have nothing to worry about.
http://www.shpe-sac.org
http://www.ocflex.com/
http://www.trgovinca.org
http://www.chasr.org/ - ben1sm4, on 10/11/2007, -2/+2oh, c'mon. I have been FBI background checked and everything else. If there is nothing to hide, there is nothing to hide. I was told once by a *bank* that I couldn't be hired because of my credit. After that, I obtained my credit report and fought anything that was bogus. I watched kids for a long time, and I have had every mother check me out that I worked with. Yeah, I am on the radar, but do I really care? I have nothing to hide, let 'em search........
- KaneElson, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1You must be really insecure about your skills, applying for 100 jobs at the same time!!! Pick a couple that you really like the sound of and stick with them.
Anyway, down here they always just run a background check through the Federal Police and that is it. - infinite9, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0If your employer plays dirty like this, why work for them? It's like they're lying just to find out if you're lying. I would send in the resume anyway. I would want my employer to get my resume and say, "oh *****, he's looking. how do we keep him here?"
Of course, the best solution is to either start your own business or become a consultant. - DangerMouse9, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0Exactly. Why should what you do in your personal life have much of a baring on how you would be in your professional life? I understand that if people know where you work and you are in the public eye that you are then a representative of your company (even if I disagree with it, I still understand it), but take a look at your own life and the things you've done in the past. Are you capable of doing your job well, even though you may have done some things in the past that you are now refusing to interview/hire someone else because they did the same thing?
- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0You are very mistaken. It's not FDA regs which prevents such things as faulty drugs. Walmart couldn't rule anything other then Walmarts, and that's where they were wanted. Walmart could not shut out any competition without a corporatist/mercantilist government to buy favor from. FreeStater said it perfectly. You, and the submitter, don't truly understand a real free market, and you shouldn't "complain" without researching reality.
http://www.mises.org/store/Market-for-Liberty-P302C0.aspx - spacebar14, on 10/11/2007, -4/+1Th`ese are` call`ed tilda`s, not apostrophe`s.
- FreeStater, on 10/11/2007, -10/+6You don't understand free market, which, don't be confused, we don't have.
- 10001, on 10/11/2007, -12/+1alternate title: Ten Ways to cover lies on your resume..
later: tell the truth (duh)
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