Police, employers using Facebook

Student profiles may affect jobs

By: Matthew Werlein

Posted: 2/27/06

Since Facebook became available at UW-Eau Claire in the spring of 2005, students have been able to use the service to contact college and high school friends from all over the world to see how they are doing via their profiles.

But now law enforcement officials and potential employers also are beginning to use Facebook, said officials at the Eau Claire police department.

Karl Fischer, an Eau Claire Police Department lieutenant, said law enforcement officials do as much of a background check on suspects as they can, which could include checking Facebook profiles.

"We do extensive background checks which can include talking to old roommates or neighbors," he said. "We want information to find out who they really are."

While he said he cannot recall any specific case in which the department obtained information from Facebook, Fischer said police officials would use the Web site to get information on the individual.

If a suspect posted that they like to do drugs, or if there are incriminating pictures of them, they may use them, he said.

Other universities have been using the Web site to identify students involved in illegal activities.

In March of 2005, a student at Oklahoma University was questioned by the Department of Homeland Security Secret Service because of a message he posted on Facebook about hiring an assassin to kill the President, according to their campus newspaper. The student said he posted it as a joke.

Penn State University Police used Facebook to identify and prosecute students who rushed the football field after an October 2005 game.

Employers also are beginning to search the site, Director of Career Services Jeanne Skoug said. Sshe began to hear last fall that employers were looking on Facebook to do research on students who apply for internships and jobs.

"It can have an affect on job prospects if there is something inappropriate on (your profile)," Skoug said.

First impressions are extremely important, and so are the assumptions that a potential employer can make based on information that they have access to, she said.

Skoug cautioned students against adding inappropriate information or pictures in their profiles.

"Don't have any information out there that you don't want an employer to see."

It's not worth losing out on an internship or a potential job, she said.

Facebook spokesperson Chris Hughes said in an e-mail interview there would have to be several factors in place to let employers be able to look up your profile.

The employer would have to be an alumni from the particular university the applicant graduated from, the university would have to distribute '.edu' e-mail addresses to those alumni and the individual would have to change their privacy settings to make it possible for alumni to view it, Hughes said.

Hughes also added that, because university students must use e-mail addresses from their schools, there is a very small likelihood that anyone outside of their friends could access their profiles.

Senior Lecturer in the Communication and Journalism department Kelly Jo Wright said she is a member of Facebook.

"I created a page so that (students) can see that I have a life outside of the classroom," she said laughing.

She said she uses Facebook so she can see what students are interested in so she can better relate to them in the classroom.

Senior Mike Berglund said he had heard that employers were using the site from an internship fair he attended.

He added any information placed on the Internet is fair game in his opinion.

"I did clean up my profile a little bit," he said. "I don't want (employers) to have the wrong impression of me."

Wright pointed out that when students are posting pictures of themselves in their profile, they should consider who could view them.

"It's so accessible and goes beyond the friends that you see on Water Street every Friday night," she said. "Ask yourself, 'would you want your Mom to see them?' "