Yesterday three US federal judges upheld a decision which said that a federal employee’s reputation was not harmed by a search on Google for his name, and that employers can use Google to search for backgroud information on their employees.
Seems that a Mr. David M. Mullins felt that after using Google to perform searches, his former employer, the U.S. Commerce Department, was influenced by his past work behavior and fired Mr. Mullins because of his background history where he was fired from other jobs.
Mullins was fired for misuse of a government vehicle & government credit card along with falsifying travel documents.
Mullins appealed his dismissal to an administrative law judge, saying that his “right to fundamental fairness” was violated when Capell allegedly used Google to do a search on his name.
Specifically, he argued that his rights were violated when Capell “came across…my alleged prior removal from federal service by the Air Force.” He also was fired by the Smithsonian Institution. Mullins claimed that she perjured herself when saying that she was not influenced by his two prior job losses.
The appeals court, however, disagreed. It ruled that the Google searches were not prejudicial and affirmed Mullins’ dismissal as a civil servant.
Instead of trying to appeal and win his job back after being fired for wasting government property, perhaps Mr. Mullins should sink his energy into first, not getting fired from his job for doing dumb stuff and secondly, search reputation management.
More from the News.com Police Blotter.
Nowhere in the official document(http://fedcir.gov/opinions/06-3284.pdf) do the judges say that an employer may (or may not) search on an employee’s name.
The whole decision sidesteps the issue. They were only concerned with whether the principle of “ex-parte communications” had been violated — that is, whether learning that the employee had been fired from two previous positions influenced the decision to let him go.
The means of discovery is irrelevant, and in this particular case the judges held there was sufficient evidence to show that the decision to fire the employee had been made before his supervisor searched for his name on Google.
The blog commentary trail on this case provides a classic illustration in the children’s game of “telephone”: what began as a headline in Computerworld (Court: Googling an employee’s name is not a federal case) has been distorted way beyond what was originally decided (much less reported).
Hmmm… I don’t know Anyyyyone who has had an employer snoop into their personal online activities. ;)
A popular SEO told me they ask new applicants if they use popular websites like eBay, MySpace, etc… The answer is almost always yes.
“Great! let’s see your MySpace profile and eBay buyer/seller ratings and statistics.” (Gulp)
These things can say a lot about a person. Some applicants get rejected based on this information.
The bottom line is that you absolutely need to take care and be concerned with the “trails” of information you leave on line. Regardless of the outcome of this case, the person was still fired and lost their job.
If you’re going to leave trails make sure they are good!
I knew this man before he passsed away, He had addressed the court about the fact that a former federal employeer had kept information about his attempted removal after he did “whistleblowing” activities. The former employer removed him and had to reinstate him along with a cash settlement. He then transfered and that new Federal employeer found out about his previous removal/reinstatement and he was forced to quit.
I don’t know about the way he was finally removed from Federal service but I do know it ruined his life and he went to work for the British Government in Saudi Arabia where he passed away from a heart attack.
Seems like he was running away from problems most Senators and Congressmen get away with everyday…… RIP