Privacy Invasion Becomes The New Norm Among Landlords And Employers

People applying for a new job are well aware of how companies conduct background checks before making their final decision. However, employers are now going through information provided by applicants’ social media accounts as well, albeit they do not necessarily want to access those accounts. That may be about to change, though.

Tenant Assured Is Invading Privacy

What makes Tenant Assured an intriguing and worrisome company is how they can access social media accounts belonging to applicants. To be more precise, the company will ask users to be granted access, rather than use any illegal means to do so. In a way, this makes the company a privacy invader, even though they dos o with consent from the account owner.

The service can work with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn profiles, from which data is scraped over time. Given the fact a lot of people do not maintain a professional nature on most of these networks, the algorithm could uncover some negative information. The information called ranges from life events to connections, and interests to previous employment. A score is then issued based on the information it receives.

Albeit this solution is only available to landlords right now, but the overarching company – Score Assured – will launch a version for employers shortly. Some people will feel this is an invasion of privacy, but co-founder Steven Thornhill waves those concerns away. He feels that people living an ordinary life have nothing to worry about.

But what is of real concern is how the company does not necessarily disclose the exact information it collects, or how the score is calculated based on these details. While it is true that most people have nothing to hide on social media, that does not mean enterprises should access those details freely.

What is even more disconcerting is how Tenant Assured does not let tenants see their own reports or make corrections. Even though technology enthusiasts would argue algorithms are nearly impeccable, there is always an error margin which could make the difference between “yes” and “no.” We can only hope these types of background checks do not become the norm, but it looks like this will be inevitable.

Source: Sophos

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