Your Identity, for Good or Ill

FBI Reports a Surge in Online Job Scams

According to a report issued by the FBI on July 5, individuals in the market for a new job have more to fear than rejection—online job scams are becoming prevalent as more individuals hunt for new employment opportunities online.

In a cautionary report, the FBI explains that identity thieves have been known to take advantage of the personal information that is disclosed when applying for a job: names, home addresses and phone numbers, work numbers, e-mail addresses, and sometimes even dates of birth and social security numbers.

Great, just what us job-seekers need. More people trying to take us for everything we've got. Isn't it bad enough that most employers out there do that and give us a little money in exchange? Now there's people who aren't even going to attempt to employ us. Great. Just great. Good thing they're avoidable.

Covering Your Tracks...But Not Too Much

Vauhini Vara has a front-page piece in today's Wall Street Journal titled Covering Your Tracks in an Online World Takes a Few Tricks (subscription required) which highlights the difficulties faced by people trying to remove embarrassing information about themselves from the Web. MySpace makes them jump through bizarre hoops to delete old user accounts, while prankster friends post phony reviews of sex toys under their name at Amazon.

And I'm sympathetic--we should have the ability to control how we're represented online. But given the article's overall focus on minimizing our online footprint, its conclusion was ironic--last year a woman in Georgia was surprised to find that old acquaintances were reading her blog, so she embarked upon a reverse-SEO campaign to make the site harder to find, and it worked.

This bit goes on to talk about how there can be great benefits in not being obscure.

Being anonymous is all good and fine and safe, but it deprives us of one of the best things the Web has allowed--it takes away our chance to really speak our mind as ourselves. Some may say that speaking up is easier when you can do so anonymously, but I ask you: which has more impact--a faceless voice screaming in the void or a familiar face speaking consistently across many platforms?

There is much more to think on and discuss on that topic.