I stumbled upon an interesting study conducted in Jan 2010 on the ‘online reputation‘ by cross-tab – a market research firm. Here are some key take aways from the ‘Data Privacy Day: Perceptions study’. 
- Nationality plays key role in determining whether online content will harm reputations
- Companies have formal policies for checking online reputational data, but male recruiters are more likely to check except in France
- Recruiters typically conduct deeper searches than most consumers are aware of, and feel justified in doing so
- Not all online content is true, but candidates may be rejected nonetheless
- Recruiters say they tell candidates if online content factored into their rejection, but consumers do not seem to be hearing it
- Good online reputations matter to recruiters
Question to Consumers : How concerned are you that your online reputation may Impact your ability to get a job/be admitted into college in the future?
Question to HR/Recruiters : Do you review online reputational information about candidates when evaluating them for a potential job / college admission?
The chart below highlights the distinction between the proportion of recruiters using certain sites to review online information about candidates and the proportion of consumers (worldwide) who feel it is appropriate for them to do so. The key distinction here is that almost twice as many recruiters review social networking sites than consumers feel it is appropriate to do so.
Read the full presentation here.
