Social media now part of government background checks

It’s safe to say Donald Trump’s longtime butler won’t be hired for a sensitive government position.

 

That’s because Anthony Senecal wrote on his Facebook page that President Barack Obama “needs to be hung for treason!!!” Under a new policy, the federal government will look at social media during their background checks of people who are under consideration for sensitive positions or access to classified national security information.

 

“I am strongly of the view that being able to collect and review publicly available social media and other information available to the public is an important and valuable capability to ensure that those individuals with access to our secrets continue to protect them, and that the capability can be aligned with appropriate privacy and civil liberties protection,” said William Evanina, director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, during a House hearing Friday on the new policy.

 

The Office of Personnel Management now conducts 1 million background checks a year. This job will be turned over to a new National Background Investigations Bureau in October. Its investigative IT system will be built and operated by the department of Defense in coordination with the NBIB.

 

In the meantime, OMB will conduct a pilot project for automated searches of social media through a commercial vendor on some background investigations. It will “assess the practical aspects of incorporating social media searches into the operational end-to-end process; the mechanics of adding this type of report to a background investigation; and the effects on quality, costs and timeliness,” said OPM Acting Director Beth Cobert.

 

Only social media information that has been published or broadcast for public consumption will be monitored. Private communications, such as messages sent through social media platforms, won’t be read. Individuals subject to a background investigation will not be asked to provide passwords to log on to private accounts.

 

Monitoring of social media already is common in the private sector. More than 40 percent of employers used public social media or online searching to screen job applicants last year, according to the Society of Human Resources Management. Most of that was done manually, but companies such as Fama Technologies offer automated social media and web analysis services for pre-employment screening.