Social networking has the capacity to become the communication tool of the next generation. More than speaking face-to-face, the telephone, or email, this is the way many of us now keep in touch with friends. But we sometimes forget that unless otherwise specified, what we say and who we say it to is out there in the public domain. Which can be a problem.

According to The Sun newspaper, 27-year-old prison officer, Nathan Singh, was recently dismissed from his job for gross misconduct. Nothing new there; I’m sure it happens on a semi-regular basis. However, what nailed Singh was his Facebook page.

Singh was working as a prison officer at Leicester Jail when an investigation was launched into allegations he was supplying mobile phones and other banned items to some inmates. The investigation failed to find any evidence supporting the claims. Until they checked his Facebook page.

Singh was found to be Facebook friends with 13 convicted criminals, some of whom had spent time in prison for offenses ranging from murder, fraud, and drugs. Not only that, but Singh could also be seen fraternizing with one of the felons at the races in a photo on the social networking site.

Singh tried to explain how he came to be Facebook friends with these individuals by telling a disciplinary hearing:

Sometimes when I logged on to my Facebook site there would be twenty-odd friends requests and I just accepted them. Sometimes I didn’t even check them. I realize now it might have been naive in the job I do.

Although the original claims of smuggling disallowed items in couldn’t be proved, Singh was dismissed for “associating with serving and former prisoners, outside the course of his employment and without authority.” And all because he had chosen to advertise his friendships with certain people on his Facebook page.

This is by no means an isolated case. Last month saw a teenage girl fired from her job after her bosses found out she’d been criticizing the company and her role in it on Facebook. There was also the Connor Riley case where a California woman lost her recently-acquired job at Cisco after a company employee read her tweet saying, “Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work.” Riley has now answered her critics in a well-written blog post.

It’s clearly important to remember that what you write on social networks is being shot out into the ether where it could be read by someone who matters. So either make your profiles and updates private, or be very careful about what you say and do online.

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Entry was posted on Monday, March 23rd, 2009 at 9:42 pm under Crime, Internet, Opinion, Social Media.

Read more entries by Dave Parrack.
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