The increased use of social networking sites such as Facebook as a recruitment tool has again been called into question in a new report published by the ICO (Information Commissioner's Office).

'The ICO (Information Commissioner's Office) has warned that millions of young people could be jeopardising their future careers by revealing too
much about themselves on social networking sites.'

As an increasing number of employers are turning to the Internet as a recruitment tool, should people be more vigilant about the information they reveal? Why do young people use social networking sites in the first place? The majority of them, at least to start with, join these sites as a means of extending their network of friends, chatting to people with similar
interests. But just how much information should they reveal about themselves? The personal details that attract friends aren't necessarily the same as those that attract potential employers.

Should we as employers even be using these tools to recruit potential employees? True they're a great way to canvas for possible candidates. But do we have the right to be intrusive? Surely if people post personal
information on social networking sites, and make that information public, they're doing so because they WANT others to read it.

The Facebook website states 'At Facebook, we believe you should have control over your information and who sees it. So in addition to the basic visibility rules - only your friends and people in your networks can see your profile - we also give you granular control over the information you post to the site.' Should we in fact simply be educating social network users to utilise their privacy settings.

There are two inescapable facts concerning information that everyone is going to have to come to terms with. Published information belongs to the
public and private information belongs to private individuals.

The Information Commissioner is currently in the process of drafting guidance for individuals who are using or thinking of using social networking sites. This guidance will be published in the coming months, once comments have been received from the social networking sites involved.

It will be interesting to read the commissioner's guidance and see what effect, if any, that guidance has on the growing use of social networking sites in the recruitment industry.