The Federal Trade Commission has approved Social Intelligence, a background checking company, to archive your Facebook account for seven years. That archived information will then be available to any employer who wishes to use it to conduct background checks on potential employees.

The biggest issue I have with this is that my Facebook activity (i.e. the pieces of my personal life that I chose to post) might not jive with the individual hiring manager, regardless if I’m amazing at my job, it’s a good fit, and everything else matches up. But what if said hiring manager, who maybe didn’t drink alcohol, had a bad experience with some jerk in Cabo who drank too much tequila at a club and picked a fight with him unprovoked while he was on his honeymoon? All of a sudden that photo of me sharing a pitcher of margaritas on Cinco de Mayo with my buddies bounces me off his short list of contenders.

Other factors that may play into this are people of different religions or no religion at all. The boss could be a Republican and the potential employee a Democrat.

The problem with allowing personal life activities to play a factor in background checks and hiring decisions is that there are many in life that work hard and play hard. There are many things that people do for fun that offend others or make them uncomfortable, regardless of how harmless it actually is. Will companies now spend more time looking for the penultimate employee who has not only the required skills and education, but also has a specific name, favorite food genre, never attended Burning Man, likes to wear t-shirts on the weekend, loves gardening, and hangs with a certain circle of friends that are “comfortable” enough for that manager to emotionally accept?

There are far too many minor nuances to a person’s personal life that it should not factor into hiring a potential employee. Just because someone may think differently than you do or enjoy different activities than you, doesn’t mean they aren’t going to be a good employee.

Still, maybe now people will stop posting every inane thought, idea, and picture to their Facebook page.