The Internet is, indeed, a rich source of information but conducting Internet searches on employees (or prospective employees) is not without risk for an employer and raises a whole bunch of complex issues. Google, MySpace, blogs, Facebook, Twitter can all be mined and turn up a host of information about employees or prospective employees but what do you do once you have that information? Gathering the information is a simple task, what you do with it is an entirely different matter.
These searches are becoming increasingly common. Often the risk arises under human rights legislation.
According to a recent article (Can employer fire worker for social media chat?):
“The use of social media to make employment decisions can potentially give rise to claims of other unlawful conduct, such as discrimination or harassment. While many employers run Google or other Internet searches on prospective employees, such actions can give rise to an argument that the decision was based on facts that cannot legally be considered."
Clearly care must be exercised when using the Internet (both as an employer and employee), but where information is obtained by the employer (or prospective employer), it is not really possible to purge that knowledge as if you never had it. Any decisions made (or not made) will be considered in the context of that knowledge.
There are other really complex employment law issues that this raises, including what the employer is to do if it discovers or becomes aware of an employees online conduct that is threatening, for example? and whether legislation such as Ontario's Bill 168, changes anything?
Once you dig into the matter of online searches, many complicated issues bubble to the surface.
