An interesting article in Yahoo! that’s talking about the issue of “private” photos posted on the Internet on websites like MySpace, Facebook, etc.
Are they really private?
Ask Antonella Barba of American Idol fame or current Miss New Jersey, Amy Polumbo. Both of them have recently had photos that were supposed to be just in fun and for friends shared in a much more public realm than either of them probably intended.
Perhaps more interesting is the direction the story goes in to address the more professional impact of photos and evidence of some of your online actions.
Many recruiters search the Web to uncover stuff like this to make sure they know everything that might be pertinent about a potential candidate they’re sending in for a job placement. I can confirm this because I worked for a recruiting company and some of us did exactly that with some of our final candidates.
I wasn’t a big fan of Antonella Barba last season and when I was blogging over at Idol Stalker. However, in this article she had a very intelligent statement:
“I used to say ‘Cover your tracks,’ but it really should be, ‘Don’t make tracks that need to be covered,'” Barba said Thursday. “Once anything is online, it’s free rein.
Part of the fun of the Internet is uncovering that great site, and yes even finding some “interesting” photos of people that were caught a little off guard. But let’s not let people uncover something we’d prefer they didn’t and that might cause us or our families undo stress in the future.
Before you go out and update your latest endeavors on MySpace, Facebook, Picasa Web Album or Flickr, stop a minute and think.