Emma Martins

EMPLOYERS have been warned against using social networking sites to vet job candidates.

Jersey’s data protection commissioner, Emma Martins, said that relying on the internet was a ‘scandalous’ and unreliable way to recruit employees.

She added that businesses should have higher standards when it came to hiring staff.

‘The internet is a pot of unregulated space,’ she said. ‘It can be a source of useful information but is equally a source of inaccurate information. To base any decision that affects someone’s life on information from the internet is, I would go so far as to say, scandalous. Employment can affect the direction of someone’s life and their ability to do a job should not be based on random information.

‘If you are a professional organisation, you should have high standards when you source information on potential employees. When you search online for someone you could be using inaccurate data. In which other areas of your business would you rely on inaccurate data?’