24/7 Surveillance

The topics of internet surveillance and privacy are dear to my heart. Within the last few
months my parental unit left me an article about internet surveillance and the possible affect it
might have on future employment opportunities. I know not why this article was sitting idly on
the center of my desk, but I read it anyway.

The article, a few pages long, was ripped from a random periodical and left where it could not be avoided, as if to secretly tell me she’s seen pictures of me drinking various alcoholic concoctions in precarious situations on someone’s FaceSpace. More specifically, the article focused on social networking sites such as MySpace.com and Facebook.com. These social networking sites themselves are not the problem. The problem is the content many users choose to upload on their personal page, even then so-called friends can add photos of you on their page without your consent. With this in mind, should it be important to employers what we do in our own free time? Why must we constantly be looking over our shoulder on and off line?

Background checks consisting of criminal records, previous employment and drug screening have become standard for most employers. It seems employers aren’t satisfied to leave it at that. Now many employers are expanding their research on prospective employees by going
to the internet.

I guess it makes some sense that our personal lives are of interest to employers, considering the current state of the economy. Cost effective hiring will be of utmost importance for companies in our failing economy. No money can be spared for those who aren’t prepared to work 24/7. And if becoming straight edge is what is required by employers then call me Minor Threat’s Ian MacKaye.