More about the tenacity of cyber stuff
by Miki SaxonIn August I wrote Like diamonds, cyber-stuff is forever, ending it with the comment, “Your little corner of the world in cyberspace includes the past, present and future…”
More proof stacked up this last week, and it’s far more worrying than the self-postings that are (somewhat) mitigated by claims of youth and/or naiveté.
Far more serious is Expunged Criminal Records Live to Tell Tales, on October 17th, that shines a spotlight on the fact that records from the justice system have a life of their own, “The problem often arises,” said Ms. Rodriguez-Taseff, the Miami lawyer, “because so many agencies have access to criminal records… Even though you have an expunged record, oftentimes a policing agency or a corrections facility allows private entities to gain access to it.”
As with resume and credit databases, once entered, data seems to migrate with a life of it’s own—ask anyone who has tried to remove their resume or straighten out incorrect credit info, let alone clean up identity theft.
And on the 21st came A Student’s Video Résumé Gets Attention (Some of It Unwanted), telling how a the video accompanying a resume was apparently leaked by someone inside UBS, and spun out of control across the web and into the real world. The applicant says “… he may have lost his chance to work on Wall Street, and added that he may not succeed in securing a financial job at all.”
So, what does all this mean to individuals and business? A lot, but here are what I see as the four main points.
- There needs to be far more education of users regarding the lack of privacy and the migration of data—and it needs to be done in compelling, easily understood terms.
- Companies need to rethink where to draw the line when evaluating background checks.
- Does it matter a decade or more later that someone did wild things in high school?
- If so, which things matter?
- How should the intervening “good behavior” be weighted?
- Whose responsibility is it to double-check the checkers?
- Companies must strengthen internal confidentiality. It takes very little to ruin a street rep and breaking candidate trust is one of the fastest. Those that don’t assure confidentiality can look forward to the duel results of
- far fewer candidates to choose from; and
- more legal difficulties from those that are leaked.
- Based on the power of the lobbying interests, waiting for any kind of solutions from Washington is likely a waste of time.
Whatever happens in years to come, it’s certainly going to prove interesting, to say the least.
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October 24th, 2006 at 6:40 pm
The argument I hear from many young people, and which honestly, I feel a bit myself, even at 40, is, “Would I even want to work for a company that wouldn’t hire me because some of my college antics were caught on video?”
Our last two U.S. Presidents (Bush and Clinton) I’m sure did a lot of stuff in their high school and college days that they wouldn’t want preserved on video for all posterity. We can’t hold it against them forever now just because there are more witnesses.
October 24th, 2006 at 6:57 pm
Ah, but it is held against them, whether it’s accurate or not.
Videos can be rigged and much of cyber-information is inaccurate. Companies rarely check the validity/veracity of what’s found in background checks, choosing to err on the side of caution—since that doesn’t hurt them.
November 14th, 2006 at 11:27 am
[...] I’ve commented several times in the past that “stuff” in cyberspace will never go away, and, more recently, that expunged court records often aren’t [expunged] and confidential information does get leaked. [...]
November 29th, 2006 at 1:53 pm
[...] For those with whom More about the tenacity of cyber stuff resonated, here’s a brief update on what ChoicePoint has done to address the leaky sieve they called their security. Too bad that other’s aren’t following their lead. [...]
February 20th, 2007 at 1:52 pm
[...] No longer “In perpetuity” has taken on a whole new meaning. [...]
May 30th, 2007 at 1:12 pm
[...] written several times regarding how stuff posted online will never go away—no matter what you do, and the impact this has/will have—especially on your professional [...]