Web of Lies? Investigating potential employees online can hurt your business if you're not careful.
By Cliff Ennico •
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Question: I'm thinking about hiring my first employee and am looking at three very well-qualified candidates. Is there anything legally wrong with researching each candidate on the web and seeing what I can find out about their backgrounds?
Answer: The short answer is no. When someone puts information about themselves on the internet, there's no reasonable expectation of privacy. But (and it's a big but), you should be careful when using any information you find about a candidate on the web, for two reasons: The information may be false or misleading, and the information may cause you to discriminate illegally against a candidate.
