Whether it be stalking, online aggression in general and other crimes or at least unfortunate activities, the online world can be daunting, scary and full of predatory behavior to put it lightly. Young people in particular tend to be the most venom-filled and they also tend to be among the most commonly victimized (Runions, Shapka, Dooley & Modecki, 2013)
This study and others like it have been very useful. However, there is still a lot of work to do in this regard and that could and should be the subject of future studies on the same and similar subjects (Tsong & Goodyear, 2014)
For some employers, however, Googling is not enough and they wish to discern more about the candidate based upon private social networking information and will ask for passwords and other log-in information to all the social media sites used by the candidate. While membership in a protected category of employment is not permitted to be taken into hiring considerations, political views, drinking, and hobbies the employer disapproves of are legal ground for not hiring an individual (Guerin)
. his boss entered his office while he wasn't there, and found an email concerning the brokering of jobs to the wife's company on the laptop," printed the email and terminated the employee, using the email as grounds for dismissal (Narisi)
Once he or she is hired, however, employees should assume that all communications on work-related computers are not private. The federal law, the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act, "prohibits unauthorized interception of various electronic communications, including e-mail" but "the law exempts service providers from its provisions, which is commonly interpreted to include employers who provide e-mail and Net access" (Schulman)
While public records are accessible to all, this does not mean that an employer can discriminate against a candidate if the worker belongs to a protected status, according to the terms of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission: for example, if an employer discovers that the prospective employee has a disability or is a member of a historically-discriminated against minority group based upon an Internet search, the employer cannot use that information against the candidate. In fact, some lawyers advise not Googling candidates given that if the prospective employee is rejected "and is able to show that such information was uncovered in an Internet search, then the candidate could allege that the impermissible criterion was the reason he or she was not hired," thus requiring the employer to demonstrate that the job-seeker was not discriminated against based upon his or her status (Siegel)
For example, "a text message is generally a private communication between the sender and the receiver. However, if the phone or computer on which the text message is sent belongs to the employer," even if the employee also uses it as a personal means of communication, the "employer has a legitimate purpose in searching an employee's phone or computer where the message was received" (Smith & Burg)