Big Brother

Here are a couple of stories about the way Facebook is being used to track our behaviors.  Mobiledia reports on a study of how college students' Facebook posts may indicate which students are at risk for "alcohol dependence."  The report raises the possibility that colleges may use Facebook to track student drinking behaviors.  Although the article suggests that colleges can adopt strategies that would not violate their students' privacy, how this information might actually be used is still uncertain.

The story also mentions that federal regulators (specifically the FTC) have approved the use of social media data to screen job applications.  This practice used to be a legal grey area, but not any more.  Finally, here is a story on Forbes.com about the extensive use of this practice by companies.  Back in 2010, Microsoft Research released a study indicating that 70% of employers rejected candidates based on social media data.  Now Reppler has released a study with similar findings.  Reppler is a company that makes its money by cleaning up the people's social media accounts so that they are more professional, and attractive to employers, so  . . .  there's that.