A FRIEND OR A FOE

Disclaimer: This is in compliance with the requirements in the subject Technology and the Law. Contents of this blog is strictly for classroom purposes only.


Social media and internet tools have been the repository of information or data of people these days. Some people couldn’t live a day without opening their accounts in the internet, be it Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, or Yahoo to name a few.  People rely on the internet for their business transactions. Others as a means of communication. Some use it as a means to say what they feel or what they’re doing or up to. Some use it to praise or defame others. To top the list, they use the internet as a search tool for anything.

Lately, some companies were heard to have been requiring their applicants to disclose their social media accounts to the point of asking the latter to accept them as friends in the social network they are in.

Social media networks and internet search tools could either mislead the company making them lose the chance of having the best applicant, or the applicant would lose his chance of being accepted because of the said matter.

To require applicants to disclose their social media account as well as to have an access to it would be a violation of the privacy of a person.

Likewise, said requirement to an applicant tends to discriminate a person with disability especially when he has uploaded a picture in the internet of himself and companies would just look into his physical appearance not considering his capabilities beyond reproach that can only be determined and observed during an interview. In an interview, the interviewer can personally size up the applicant just like observing a witness during a trial.

Some people use the internet by posting comments or blogs or information regarding a person making it an avenue to introduce information which is prejudicial to the personality or image or interest of the applicant or which is damaging or discriminatory to him. By using the internet as a search tool in determining the best applicant would make people or companies believe that the personality depicted is really his true character  What may be portrayed in the internet could be a misconception of the person.

Due to reasons cited, social media networks and internet search tools cannot be relied on in determining the most suitable applicant needed by companies.