Social media ‘snooping’ by employers to be thing of the past

The days when an employer could ‘shoulder surf’ an employee to see what they had posted on social media are rapidly coming to an end, writes Eddie Keane

Recent guidelines from the European advisory body on data protection and privacy — known as the Article 29 Working Party — may have serious implications for employers who monitor the social media of their staff.

Considering that there are more than 1.87bn Facebook profiles, it is easy to see why — according to a survey conducted by US recruitment company CareerBuilder — up to 70% of employers check the social media profiles of job applicants as part of the recruitment process.