How do employers/potential employers look at peoples' facebooks/myspace/etc.?

Keep it private and don't post risky stuff

It's so simple to change your facebook settings to private that I can't believe some people get in trouble for this stuff. Also, after a night of partying, remove any pictures of you doing stupid shit that your friends tagged you in.

People are retarded when it comes to the internet. Make all of your shit private, don't add anybody who requests to be your friend (make sure you know them), don't post stupid shit. It's that simple.

a) Do less stupid shit. b) Hide your information so people can't find what stupid shit you have done. c) Don't add random people. d) Don't be stupid in what you post. e) Profit?

My MD said he automatically dings anyone who has a drink in hand in their facebook picture.

Something to think about.

Even if over 21?

Adds a whole new meaning to the term 'digging up dirt.' Honestly though, I may be one of few, but I'm so on top of my social network accounts. Military_PE_Guy said it best when he talked about how his posting habits changed on just this site: "I try not to say anything I wouldn't be comfortable saying to my boss' face in the middle of a quiet, packed room." Every social media account of mine is kept under pretty careful tabs, it only takes one single virtual slip-up (i.e. all the recent firings over inappropriate tweets from journalists, executives, etc.) to commit career suicide.

Very good point nobama

Exactly what nobama said, the smear campaigns of the future are going to be ridiculous.

The stuff posted so far have a lot of valid points. Fucking blows how future politicians and prominent figures will be required to be literally picture perfect to prevent being revealed by heat-seaking mormons.

But that's not the question the OP posed- question is how are companies, individuals, etc. getting to this information? I know I have facebook fully private and even my pictures aren't available to see by my friends. But for some reason I get the impression that if there's someone who wants to dig shit up, they'll pay enough money to do so and the privacy settings don't mean jack.

Just found out a few days ago that my google search is linked with my gmail account (I felt retarded). That means whenever I check e-mail at a computer and then search something on google without logging out, my search history will be forever associated with my e-mail account. Getting rid of your cyber footprints maybe one of the hardest things to do currently and in the future. God knows how much money people are going to be spending to delete shit they regret putting online.

I feel embarassed even admitting to this, but FB has fucked me before. My profile pic was a pretty hilarious picture of me messed up at a music festival. I had it set to private, but people from my school could still look at it. So I cold email a bunch of alumns looking for an internship last summer and one of them emails me back, "if your looking for an internship you might want to change your facebook picture." Obviously he was at least considering giving me a shot if he looked me up on FB. Obviously felt like a huge dumbass.and ended up with no internship.

Are you sure you can even make your profile picture private? I thought anybody could see that no matter what.

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Is it weird to not even have a Facebook? Never made one and figured if I wanted to get in touch with somebody I will reach out rather than be available for the world to get in touch with me,