It's a noble thought Matt, but what if you went to a site and the potential employee was depressed and talking about his hatred towards certain groups of people? If you were about to hire him, wouldn't the safety of your staff play a part in that decision? What is your duty of care if the person comes into work one day and takes out all the people with the gun he so proudly displays on his site? Should you have done something? What if she is endlessly complaining about her boss on Facebook or Twitter, you don't think that would impact you? What if she laughed about taking "sick days" You don't think you'd wonder what sort of an employee she'd be and whether she would rip you off as well? To be honest I think in application, you say you wouldn't care, but there's a good chance if you came across something that was worrisome, it would impact your decision making. Then there is the legal aspect of it. Would I sue you if I was one of your employees who was the recipient of this person's prejudice? Would I seek compensation for the stress that you as an employer had made me endure because you hired that person with prior knowledge of the issues he was bringing to your team? Would that then colour your decision?

The only thing you can do, is not to look on social networking sites -- and then you won't find anything you shouldn't see. And then it will come as a complete and total surprise when the guy/gal shoots up the workforce on the one of the rare days he/she comes to work.

At least you can probably be sure it won't be a Monday. :)

Hi Gayle, funny you should mention this, a Gen Y friend of mine was blogging about this today (http://www.pigsdontfly.com/2008/10/privacy-stat...).

As an employer I know I don't care what a prospective employee does when they're not at work. If I found videos of them shooting up heroin I might think twice, but as far as I'm concerned, their private life is their private life and unless it impacts on their work life, it's none of my business, no matter what they get up to.