As popular social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin have become  increasingly popular with a wide audience, the legal problems that come with them have been magnified.  With all the personal information readily available, employers have begun using it to both check applicants out prior to hiring, as well as keeping tabs on current employees.  These are two situations that have become increasingly worrisome for lawyers.

While there is no law against checking an applicants Facebook or Twitter account to see what kind of person they are, it opens the employer up to a number of discrimination claims.  For example, if an employer finds information on a site like Facebook that reveals the applicant’s disability or medical condition, they are at risk for a discrimination claim.  Similar to avoiding certain questions on applications, there are some things you don’t want to know.

The other major situation that arises with social networking sites is when employers/boss’s friend their subordinates.  This opens up an employer to a host of discrimination issues including harassment, discrimination or wrongful termination, as well as complaints of favoritism if the boss friends only a select person or persons.  One way to avoid this is to wait to be friended by the employee, let them initiate contact outside of work.  As usual, the best way to avoid discrimination claims is to document everything and use only that information when deciding on terminations.

Some good advice provided by Legal Blog Watch:

“For those employers who can’t resist peeking at social networking sites, Jennifer M. Bombard, an attorney with Morgan, Brown & Joy, recommends that they document a “legitimate business rationale for rejecting applicants” and make sure that hiring decisions are not motivated by information found on an applicant’s social networking site.  Yet even with these prophylactic measures, a discrimination case will be “more problematic to defend” where an employer admits to having looked at a social networking site, says Gerald L. Maatman Jr., an attorney with Seyfarth Shaw.”

The general feeling within the legal community is that there is really no reason to checking applicants and employees online profiles.  You can learn any information that is related to the job by conducting thorough interviews and background checks.  Other things to keep in mind are that information found online can be taken out of context, could be false, and may not have any bearing whatsoever on the type of employee the person is.