There is NO Ethical Way to Stalk Someone

If you have to use Facebook Graph Search and Rapportive to get information on people, it's not ethical.

Entrepreneur.com contributor, John Rampton, recently wrote about how employers are using social media to "ethically" stalk potential candidates. The article also talks about competitive inelegance gathering, but that's separate from what I take issue with in his post.

When it comes to other peoples information, we should consider the following:

1) Information that's made readily available and was posted by the person in question has a reasonable assumption of discovery; an intention that it's OK be found.
2) And as we know, social networks provide tools to manage security of information and content.

At a top level search, if you can't find what you're looking for, and if you're any good at your job, you'll know that either that there's nothing to be found or that the info is not intended to be public.

However, if you have to continue digging to get past top level searches of what the person in question knowingly made available to the public, then you're trying to access information that, to the best of their knowledge, is not for your eyes.

Having access to something does not mean it's ok for you to take it. 

According to the research referenced in the article the 91% of employers screening social media use Facebook more than LinkedIn to learn about a candidate. The message there is that skills are not valued as much as your personal lives. But go do a Facebook Graph Search on yourself and you'll be surprised at what's online about you. Does it give the whole picture? Would you want to be judged solely on that content?

In an effort to be fair, employers should do a retroactive snoop on current employees to access information that is beyond top level searches. Are you set up to enforce your social media policy? Have you circled with HR and Legal for the ramifications of NOT letting someone go when they clearly would never have been hired in the first place? I don't know if there's any blowback from not doing so, but I bet someone could make trouble for you if you if they found out that under difference circumstances they'd be as qualified as someone you already employ.

To be clear, I'm not saying that employees and candidates have immunity from the consequences following what they post [as allowed by National Labor Relations Board]. I'm saying that digging into a person's background without their consent cannot be done ethically in most hiring situations. [Obviously some jobs requiring high security clearances vet their employees differently, but are more upfront about it.]

Ethical use of technology comes from restraint and respectfulness, not free reign through circumventing reasonable expectations of privacy.