Facebook's upcoming new Open Graph search tool is causing concern amongst critics that it could become an increasingly important tool for employers to research potential job candidates.
The new tool will enable users to perform a number of advanced searches on the social networking site, replacing the existing basic tool still in use by most accounts. It will mean that detailed searches can be made on the entire Facebook community using a variety of filters to produce any information on a user who set to 'public'. In effect, any information that you do not necessarily want some people to see, will be easier than ever to locate if the appropriate privacy settings are not applied.
This is the latest in a series of features which have made it easier for strangers to find information on you, The Ticker and the Timeline being amongst the most prominent previous developments.
According to critics, young job seekers may encounter problems if they have uploaded embarrassing posts or photos of themselves on Facebook. Against a situation where an increasing number of employers admit to researching job candidates on Facebook, many users persist in making the public the exact details that may count against them in the all-important task of job hunting.
If this applies to you, make sure you apply the appropriate privacy settings and ensure anything you upload is set to 'Friends Only'.
