Social Media and Employer Discrimination: Are You Protected?

It’s no secret that employers look up the social medial profiles of job applicants. The Society for Human Resource Management found that recruitment through social media websites raised from 34 percent in 2008 to 77 percent in 2013. A quick glance at a person’s Facebook profile often tells more about that person than their formal resume.

Profiles on Facebook or LinkedIn include all kinds of personal information, including race, gender, age, and ethnicity. How do you know if a potential employer isn’t discriminating against you in the hiring process based on one of these factors? The unfortunate answer is, you don’t.

Since the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission can’t regulate employee discrimination online, the EEOC suggests companies use a third party to survey social media profiles. Using someone not involved in the hiring process will rule out the possibility of discrimination online.

Also, companies can only use public information on a candidate’s profile. Employers may not use private information while deciding who to hire. That means, if a person’s profile is private, an employer may only use information that everyone can see.

In order to increase employee privacy, seven states have enacted a bill that prohibits employers from requesting social media passwords: Louisiana, Maine, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Tennessee, and Wisconsin. Legislation for the same bill is pending or has been introduced in 28 states.

There is always risk of discrimination by a potential employer when recruiting on social media. To protect yourself, keep your profile private, and always think twice about what you post online.