Social Media History Becomes a New Job Hurdle; New York Times, 7/20/11

Jennifer Preston, New York Times; Social Media History Becomes a New Job Hurdle:

"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."