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Comment by chroem | Hacker News Reader

This is exactly the sort of thing that I have been absolutely terrified about for a while now. When you're being hired, companies often tell you that they're going to run a professional background check, and I am concerned this may mean they buy data from Google, Facebook, cell carriers, etc.

Unsavory political views? Get blacklisted.

Don't get along with a relative? Get blacklisted.

Indulge a porn habit more than the HR manager likes? Get blacklisted.

I cannot stress enough how dangerous this is.

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You could also wind up at a job where your personality and views are appreciated and you don't have to hide your true feelings from anybody. I realize the point is about invasion of privacy, but there are places that are looking for non-cookie-cutter people too. Like my own company - we don't really hire anybody unless they seem to be a weirdo of some sort.

I think this is cynical and forgets the reality of competition. In this 'big data hiring' future companies still need to compete for talent. Companies which hire on the basis of arbitrary factors like political views, porn habits, family infighting risk losing talent to competitors. There are incentives to find the right factors of a good employee, just like there are today. In fact a lot of these concerns can happen with the human interview process today.

The algorithm to hire people in this future is a competitive asset of a company and they would spend lots of time & money to narrow down the actual important factors. I highly doubt companies would just all settle on the same algorithm given the incentives to compete.

Also if you are concerned about this info impacting employment, just don't post it online. Not much different than today.

> In this 'big data hiring' future companies still need to compete for talent. Companies which hire on the basis of arbitrary factors like political views, porn habits, family infighting risk losing talent to competitors.

Yes, but you forget the old banking maxim: it is better to fail conventionally than it is to succeed unconventionally. I think it's very likely that hiring managers would pass up the potential increased talent of an employee if that talent came coupled with increased risk that the employee would do something to embarrass the company or do something to make the company look bad.

>Also if you are concerned about this info impacting employment, just don't post it online.

So what do I do when the lack of online information about me in itself becomes a drawback?

Oh, joy-a fully automated caste system.

Why are you so worried about the opinions of others? Do you have more passion than other people who do what you do? Then that will be good enough.

not everyone wants to end up like brendan eich

Not everyone wants to work with a little Eich.

Play on HN more than you should? Get black.... hey, wait a minute!

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