ResourceBlog Article: Social Media: German Law Bans Facebook Research For Hiring Decisions; Googling job applicants: the UK position

contact us \| suggestion

Receive the weekly sampler of posts and "Resource of the Week".
Subscribe »

My Account »

If you find ResourceShelf useful, please supply a testimonial »

Home > ResourceBlog > Article

« All ResourceBlog Articles

Thursday, 26th August 2010

Social Media: German Law Bans Facebook Research For Hiring Decisions; Googling job applicants: the UK position

From an Out-Law Post:

Employers in Germany will be allowed to enter job applicants' names into search engines and professional networking sites but must not look at their profiles on Facebook, under a draft law that was approved by the Federal Cabinet yesterday.

The law on the regulation of employee privacy is said to establish "an equitable balance between the interests of employees in protecting personal data and the legitimate interests of employers," according to a translation of a statement on the Federal Cabinet's website.

The law clarifies the questions that can be asked during a job application process. It is acceptable for an employer to request an applicant's name, address, telephone number and email address, according to the law; but certain internet searches are forbidden.

[Clip]

Official guidance that accompanies the law cites Facebook as an example of a service used for communication, which must not form part of a "private fishing expedition" and LinkedIn as a service used to represent professional qualifications which can be explored.

[Clip]

Kirsty Ayre, a partner in the employment law team of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind OUT-LAW.COM, said UK law is more tolerant of online research.

"I know a lot of employers will put an applicant's name into Google to see what comes up, and nothing in UK law prevents that," she said. "In terms of how employers use the information they find, they have to be conscious of a person's rights, particularly under the Data Protection Act."

"The safest approach is to make it clear at the outset of the recruitment process that you're going to conduct internet research," she said.

Access the Complete Post (via Out-Law)

blog comments powered by Disqus

« All ResourceBlog Articles

FreePint Family

A family of resources to help information workers be more effective, raise the value of information in their organisations and contribute to success. Read more »

Latest Family Articles:

Quilting big data threads
Thursday, 24th May 2012

Recently I have found myself cooing over visualisation maps (and heat maps) of health and well being resources. The content rich data is overlayed with mapping technologies, and some interesting themes and patterns are emerging.

The fallacy of information overload
Wednesday, 23rd May 2012

A lot of the talk around social media in the last year has been around information overload. Social media has provided us with new and exciting ways to create content. But it has also meant learning new ways to manage and engage with social media tools. Are we teetering on the edge of an information overload precipice?

Information overload: fact, fantasy or filter failure?
Wednesday, 23rd May 2012

Information overload is a figment of your imagination. Or a failure of your filter. Or a symptom of your technological submissiveness. Depends on who you ask.

Newsdesk: tracking millions of pieces of information a day
Tuesday, 22nd May 2012

What if you had to sort through 3.5 million articles and social media posts a day and try to pull out the most relevant items for your organisation? What if you then had to cobble it all together into something readable for your top groups and executives in your organisation?

Alacra Compliance adds managerial oversight
Tuesday, 22nd May 2012

Alacra Compliance saves time by aggregating information from both free and fee-based sources and enabling users to conduct an accurate federated search across these sources (coined “simultaneous search” by Alacra).

All Family Articles »
Family Articles by Category »

Tell us what you're working on,
and we'll talk to you about how FreePint can help »

FreePint Family Testimonials

"Fabulous resource to learn of unique tools and insights. Very useful." Manager, Futures and Forecasting, Virginia, USA

More testimonials »

Subscribe to the ResourceShelf Newsletter and receive the weekly sampler of posts and Resource of the Week.

Find out more »

ResourceShelf sponsored by:

Article Categories

Search News (9339)
Source File (9518)
Web 2.0 (2568)

All Article Categories »