Live data from Hacker News

I had to get a background check for my job; the report is a 300 page pdf

twitter.com

81–90 of 323 posts

Re: I had to get a background check for my job; the report is a 300 page pdf

#81
post #4

Here's the company doing this: https://fama.io/ The idea that you can assess someone's workplace performance based on automated screening of their tweets is utterly absurd. If anyone works somewhere that uses this tool, or anything similar to it, you should run far, far away from that company. This is a terrible precedent, and much too much Orwellian for my taste. EDIT: somewhat related, but a while back I made a Twi…

On a related note, I declined a job interview when a company wanted to do the interview process via HireVue. Has the Orwellian telescreen feel. The process includes candidate recording interview responses and uploading them for AI to evaluate. HR must not realize that as part of the interview, candidates are also evaluating whether the company is a good place to work at.

I've also laughed at companies trying to pull this thing, but I also realize that this is a huge privilege. There is really only in tech that the tables are somewhat flipped, and applicants can afford to give HR bullies the middle finger.

Re: I had to get a background check for my job; the report is a 300 page pdf

#82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Beyond the question of aggregating someone's likes is the fact that the actual tweets flagged are ludicrous: the system has a third-grader's notion of "bad language" and a temperance activist's view of even _references_ to alcohol (not drinking excessively, or drinking at all, but literally seeing a bottle of vodka somewhere)

Imperfect people creating imperfect systems to judge others that change the course of life with no means of appeals is specific type of hell.

I guess my point is, that's why you should be wary about giving them that information; because it will be used, in that manner, probably against you, forever.

Re: I had to get a background check for my job; the report is a 300 page pdf

#83
post #18

Oy. Similarly, I'm mystified with the CIA's and NSA's fascination with mandatory recurring polygraph tests. It's pretty well known the whole area is flawed bullshit. It doesn't measure anything remotely related to "truth". Edit: I know we aren't supposed to discuss downvotes here, but the activity on this comment and my replies are very interesting. It's curious why discussion on this topic is so controversial. Why w…

In France, until not so long ago, analysing your hand writing was a commonly accepted form of background test for any large company!

Re: I had to get a background check for my job; the report is a 300 page pdf

#84
post #4

Here's the company doing this: https://fama.io/ The idea that you can assess someone's workplace performance based on automated screening of their tweets is utterly absurd. If anyone works somewhere that uses this tool, or anything similar to it, you should run far, far away from that company. This is a terrible precedent, and much too much Orwellian for my taste. EDIT: somewhat related, but a while back I made a Twi…

Looks like Hire Right ( https://www.hireright.com/ ) uses this. And a lot of the FANG tier companies use Hire Right. That'd a exclude a lot of the tech companies.

I went through a HireRight background check recently and I didn’t see anything related to social media? Maybe it’s something the company needs to explicitly ask for?

Re: I had to get a background check for my job; the report is a 300 page pdf

#85
post #49
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it's OK if it happens to "bad" people. People who have bad opinions should not of course have jobs. They should die on the streets, as untouchables... Of course this holds as long as "the good side" has the power to make companies fire people for their tweets. If and when conservatives get this power (like e.g. they did in the Hoover or McCarthy era), this practice would be wrong again, and it should all be about…

"Bad opinions" is a pretty remarkable simplification of the concept of someone that doesn't think you're fully human based on the color of your skin or your sexuality. Would you want to work with someone that didn't think you should be allowed to exist?

I do work with people who don't think I should be allowed to exist. But they're required to be polite to me at work, and to use my pronouns, and as long as they do that no lines have been crossed.

Re: I had to get a background check for my job; the report is a 300 page pdf

#86
post #6

I'm torn between "My god, this is a dystopian nightmare" and "Well, you did all that in public, in print, with your real name attached, what did you expect?". Maybe both things are right. Edit: Since, looking at the downvotes, this seems to be controversial, let me clarify that I'm not blaming the victim, I'm questioning whether it's a good general policy to give everyone, including various bad actors, a vast databas…

Is it normal to live your private life in accordance to what a future hypothetical employer might think ? EDIT: private should be replaced with personal, as opposed to work

If you live in a country that assigns points to how good of a citizen you are where this point system determines if you get credit, or housing, or a job, then yes, this is normal.

Re: I had to get a background check for my job; the report is a 300 page pdf

#88
post #4

Here's the company doing this: https://fama.io/ The idea that you can assess someone's workplace performance based on automated screening of their tweets is utterly absurd. If anyone works somewhere that uses this tool, or anything similar to it, you should run far, far away from that company. This is a terrible precedent, and much too much Orwellian for my taste. EDIT: somewhat related, but a while back I made a Twi…

Oooooooh I’ve been meaning to write a similar tool but you already did it so that’s perfect! Quick question: is it possible to specify a date to delete tweets before or do I need to calculate the number of days? Also what happens if the number of tweets is greater than 3200?

Re: I had to get a background check for my job; the report is a 300 page pdf

#89
In fairness I don’t use social media (well, other than posting here from time to time), so it’s difficult for me to identify with folks who spend a considerable (IMHO) amount of time recording their activities and thoughts on third party systems which have dubious, at best, privacy policies. My naive understanding of these platforms is for you to make yourself discoverable.

Can someone help me understand why after spending time over years recording yourself it is now a surprise companies are using that data?

Re: I had to get a background check for my job; the report is a 300 page pdf

#90

The master plan of the entire real names thing juuuuust landed.

Hi! My real name is Myfronds Callmeh Mahhname. Of course I can provide my national id for identity check, dear facebook. It's issued by proud nation of Djibouti.

Problem is, however, if you actually use facebook, it is trivial to get your real identity from your vanilla friend network, not to mention that one of them is bound to fuck up and tag you in their selfie.

Post reply on HN