Too Much Information?

Many employers now regularly “Google” employees and job applicants; employees and applicants Google employers and potential employers in return. In so doing, they uncover all sorts of information about each other. An employer may find a Facebook page, a MySpace profile, a blog or blog entry, or (even) information about someone on someone else's Web pages or blog postings. An employee may find a blog describing an employer's workplace or other information about its business or practices. A competitor may use Google or Yahoo! to monitor the competition and, in so doing, discover information posted by an employee or former employee that the employer believes is a trade secret. There is considerable information available in cyberspace ' much of it interesting, some of it damning, and some of it false. Obtaining that information feels risk free and virtually untraceable. However, the universe of employment laws applies to much of what happens when virtual sleuthing yields tangible job consequences.