BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING - AND REPORTING YOUR INTERNET ACTIVITY TO HR

Companies have long used criminal background checks, credit reports and even searches on Google and LinkedIn to probe the previous lives of prospective employees. Now, some companies are requiring job candidates to also pass a social media background check.

“All we assemble is what is publicly available on the Internet today," said Max Drucker, chief executive of Social Intelligence, which reviews the online activity of companies' job applicants.

A year-old start-up, Social Intelligence, scrapes the Internet for everything prospective employees may have said or done online in the past seven years.

Then it assembles a dossier with examples of professional honors and charitable work, along with negative information that meets specific criteria: online evidence of racist remarks; references to drugs; sexually explicit photos, text messages or videos; flagrant displays of weapons or bombs and clearly identifiable violent activity.

“We are not detectives,” said Max Drucker, chief executive of the company, which is based in Santa Barbara, Calif. “All we assemble is what is publicly available on the Internet today.”

The Federal Trade Commission, after initially raising concerns last fall about Social Intelligence’s business, determined the company is in compliance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act, but the service still alarms privacy advocates who say that it invites employers to look at information that may not be relevant to job performance.

IF YOUR VIEWS AREN'T PC, THEN YOU WON'T GET A JOB.

IF THIS DOESN'T CHILL AND KILL FREE SPEECH AND BLOGGING THEN NOTHING WILL.