Bosses warned of social media vetting
James Arnold, managing director of the Donegal-based company Employment Vetting Bureau Ireland, said there is a major difference between personal and professional browsing of people online.
It is estimated that up to 70% of employers around the world are scanning social media pages without an applicant’s permission to assist their pre-employment screening methods.
However, Mr Arnold warned that employers scanning social media pages and forming negative opinions about job applicants may be breaching the Data Protection Acts.
He said: “The problem is quite serious because of two issues — consent and relevance. What is publicly viewable to an employer in social media may not in fact be usable by an employer to make judgement without the knowledge and consent of the applicant. And what an employer may view may not at all be true. To form an opinion based on what is seen could be detrimental to a job applicant.”
He said the employer’s judgement on a very innocent but inappropriate comment or photo for example, or on what the applicant likes or dislikes could cause that employer to judge the applicant and an applicant’s social life and use it as a conduit for their decision.
Mr Arnold said the practice is widespread and, in his opinion, sneaky.
But unlike many other countries, Ireland’s Data Protection laws have been tightened up since 2014 and those practicing what applicants call ‘Snoopy Bosses’ in Ireland may find themselves in serious hot water in the future.
