IHurtPeopleForFun
23854
478
8
https://i.imgflip.com/apwrt9.jpgAs an IT contractor I have to spend just so much time dealing with very dumb interviewers. Usually some HR person that has no idea how IT works but desperately needs to inject themselves into the process.
The bravest among them will ask me "So why is it I can't find anything about you on the internet except your resume?". In their minds they are just so smart and feel like not being able to look me up on Facebook or Instagram makes me very sketchy. They actually think that they are some sort of detective that can use AI to learn everything about me.
My first major job in IT was working for Google at Google HQ in 2014. My team worked next to the global security team. At the water cooler the security team told us "anything negative you say about working here shows up on our screens in about thirty seconds".
First week of being hired we all had to sit in a seminar where a very upbeat HR person was like "We won't actually fire you for using Facebook but we would like you to use Google Spaces. But if you even hint about things that we are working on but have not officially announced that can get you fired on the spot. And we have all kinds of tools to figure out who you are. We run heuristics scans on your location and posting history and language. And will know withing fifteen minutes of your post who you are"
I literally watched SECOPS frog march a member of my team out of the building because he got drunk and posted about how he got a great job and how cool what he did was
My entire team deleted every single social media app they had the next day. Then told our family to also delete those apps.
I have my entire family on Signal and Proton. Not because that is the best opsec option but because it is the easiest for old people. And that was before AI.
Every time some HR person is like "Why can't Claude tell me your birthday and what school you went to?" I am like "because no one has any right to my life, I rent you my life for an agreed on amount of money". But I decide my sexuality, politics, and personality all on my own and you have no right to any of that just because you paid for a magic box
majortool
STAR technique. HR professionals need to be there to conduct STAR interviews which is a mathematical way of assigning you a score for your interview. If you learn the process you can exploit it.
Marikhen
I don't think I'd be able to react "well" to a scenario like this. My brain would just freeze from multiple answers ranging from, "Good" or, "Well, I respect my privacy so maybe you should too," and ending up with, "When I want to feel better about myself I play video games, not go swimming in a cesspool."
hohohoooo
JasonFndrbrkr
OnlyOneArman
Yeah, but do you *want* to work for those companies?
JasonFndrbrkr
Well sometimes you don't have much choice. I just forwarded this meme to a friend who is a nurse. They seem to get automatically screened out of every hospital recruitment platform. They are qualified and experienced, but their resume is not AI friendly
Bojovnik84
Employer can monitor all it wants, but you shouldn't use it at work and you should keep your account private.
RecurringNightmare
this...i always cringe when people tag things "NSFW", like, you arent supposed to do private internet shit at work, doesnt matter if its shopping on amazon or hardcore porn...phone muted and at the bottom of the bagpack (some employers even have lockers for phones), only work stuff on the work PC...there really shouldnt be anything to monitor there...
TheTojo15
Does Imgur count as social media? Cuz it’s the only app I have that doesn’t have to do with my finances or small fictional animals that I trap in balls. I don’t have any other social media accounts
yamsonyamsonyams
If you have signal notifications turned on, the feds can access all your conversations through the notification data saved on your phone - dont even have to get anything from signal directly
JinxRocks
Decades of not posting anything that would reflect bad on the company, not reveal your location, what you work on, etc., and then they want to cry they can't find you on social media? Heck, SECOPS here went so far as to learn how to hide myself on background check sites, too. Intelius/BeenVerified and that ilk also can't turn me up now. Its not easy (but never wholly impossible) to find me.
SatansHolyTaint
If I may ask, how did you do that? Can I just Google "hide myself from background check sites"?
JinxRocks
Its a bit more than that. You have search for yourself online, request your info be deleted or hidden, request background sites not share your info without permission, and pretty much opt out of everything you can: DMA marketing mails, do not call registry, request your public records be sealed, etc. It takes a bit of legwork, but it makes it nice and quiet.
Whatdoyousaytoanicecupoftea
I'm sorry, what? Why do they need to find personal info about you independent from what you've already submitted??! Youre not going for a maximum security government role?
mohavewolfpup
Data mining/resale and to fire you at a whim. This centuries version of requiring a photo attached to the resume and filtering via a name
zylokun
You understand of course that HR already has the answers to these questions and CAN stalk you easily
Noahbalboa82
Good Lord, they should see that as a positive. Social media is an incredible way to social engineer someone, it's a security liability
sadurdaynight
Where i work and prev place i worked sent out "social media guidance" memos. Basically if you post that you work for them in facebook then you become a rep for the company and need to keep a clean public image. Then they suggested you make positive posts about the company like you're a marketing whore. So they want people to act as marketing extensions in social media.
PerrinAybara564
My wife was harassed by some guy with a public Facebook page. He proudly announced he worked in my department (large company) on his "About Me" page. HR was very excited to see those screenshots from a "concerned citizen"
KerryCoder
"You can't find anything about me on AI because I changed my last name to avoid a stalker earlier this year. You don't find me on social media because I don't enjoy or need to use social media. I can provide references, a work history, and a Github."
Zalm
#2 I haven't had social media in over 20 years now. I only had a Facebook at one point, but it got the boot years ago. I never made any other accounts other than one particular twitter to harass ashit pie until Elon bought that it and banned me for doing so. Beyond that, never had any other social media
socialinjustice411
weird, the IT "guys" I know are all trolls on socials.
IHurtPeopleForFun
I have worked at places where the IT guys would search your laptop for personal information and/or porn. Pretty sure they all work for ICE now. No decent manger would allow you to violate federal law for fun
SufferingNobly
"You can't find anything about me on the internet because I know more about information and technology than you do. If I didn't, you'd get my personal information with a Google search."
VodkaReindeer
That's just what a North Korean slave would say to get hired for a remote position!
AyatollahBahloni
rocinanteismyhorse
Mmm G+ memories too
HelplessRomantic
isn't it... dead tho?
Neurisko
More like
monkeyontherun4
Gonna need a bigger graveyard
PosthumousExile
Ai slop. Poorly draw this in Microsoft paint like a gentleman
Neurisko
I got it from a google search. At least I didn't boil an entire pond full of turtles myself to do it.
annonymouse211
I wish I could fully swap to Proton but I'm so entrenched. Got a main, side main, work main, side work main, spam, second spam, and I have to check the main 4 every day plus NOW a Proton mail which almost no one uses, all without stopping the usual checks on the prior accounts. Idk how people change accounts fully ever.
EmoPolarbear
It’s easy, old mail forwards all mail to new mail, mailbox rule on new mail to sort emails sent to old mail into a folder, once a month spend 30 minutes migrating any accounts that sent anything to old mail.
SatansHolyTaint
Real questions. Is deleting FB, xitter, instathot, and the rest enough or are there "residual" footprints AI can scrape? Are "anonymous" sites like this really anonymous? Any suggestions on removing your digital history? I just had a conversation about seeing people get fired, or not hired, for posting their shenanigans for the world to see and thus haven't had social media since the Myspace days bc of that, besides here and anonymous scrolling. TIA
IHurtPeopleForFun
Tried real hard to explain to a boomer uncle that if you use the internet without shutting down the things that make all the services you like actually work "you have Facebook". He was like "I have never had Facebook". And I was like every app you have ever used has thirty cookies from Facebook. You could throw your phone away and get the exact same adds on the next one because they have a fingerprint of how you use the itnernet
Lugh314159
Well... You are here, so statistically speaking you probably have more tech savvy than your average HR person. Imagine you were them and try using Google and ChatGPT in Incognito mode to see what you can find about yourself.
SuperfluousMeh
I see posts on Reddit all the time that say they've been anonymized via some process so maybe there is a way to get your residual crap off the internet. But I don't know either because I did the same as you. I saw how much Myspace was a time waste and I said this is not for me. Never had a facebook, never regretted it.
SatansHolyTaint
I've seen that as well, some app or service called redact. As a computer geek but nowhere near IT or IT security levels of knowledge, I have to ask, is that effective though? Seems that would be one of the first places some sleuthing AI bot would try to scrape for identifying info.
SuperfluousMeh
I don't think anything's 100% effective. That's part of the problem with IT and why you need overlapping procedures.
Cilvaa
I have Facebook, but all other socials are in a nickname. If people Google my first and last name, they get results for a YouTuber or a now-deceased film director. You have to scroll quite far before my FB turns up.
jewelergeorgia
That last paragraph is eloquent and succinct. I worry it is too late. The privacy campaign is being fought in one on one battles like this now.
JudgementalChair
I completely reworked my Facebook and Instagram to solely professional headshots and the company I work for and don't touch it at all unless I'm DM'ing memes to my irl friends. I essentially have 3 LinkedIn's now.
djangojazz
Deleted Facebook in 2020 or so. Never touched Twitter. I mouth off on LinkedIn about AI a lot. Worry about that some time but never say anything about myself or companies. Post mostly hear and on Bluesky. Never, ever use dear leader's name or things directly naming bad events. Super scared of Palantir and Flock and how the Western World is allowing them unrestricted access of citizens.
dghughes
IT: How do you monitor us? HR: we use xprogram/app IT: who manages that system? HR: uhh I...T...
Noonius
what a funny way of saying that they'd like to get sued for invasion of privacy
Neurisko
Arguably, anything on social media isn't "private." I'm sure their lawyers cleared it.
NothingPrince
They fired him because he said he loved his job. WTF that's the opposite of what to do
IHurtPeopleForFun
At the time our particular division did not officially exist. Saying you work for the thing that has not been announced to the shareholders yet is....not a good idea
NothingPrince
cheers that makes sence
OnlyOneArman
What kind of idiot would love his job? Fired! We don't tolerate idiots!
justareallylongemailaddress
I deleted FB in 2008... best decision ever. Never signed up for X, IG, diktok or anything else except this site since.
Zalm
It's twitter. Period. Calling it anything else means you support that fascist cuck.
SpacemanSpiff1000
Same except I left in 2013. Imgur is the only one I have also. Fuck all that toxic shit.
IHurtPeopleForFun
My entire team at Google was on imgur under assumed names and TOR browser because it was what we used in our downtime. I played Jackbox with @sara back in the day. We all loved this site
HandoB4Javert
HandoB4Javert
justareallylongemailaddress
Also, recruiters aren't (always) the most enlightened people. I constantly get hit up asking if my 18 years of explicitly stated Java experience make me a good fit for dot.net and python....
mjperk
Agreed. Maybe not the same but similar--I've been an R&D optomechanical design engineer for the past 11 years have worked my way up from a Jr. engineer to a Sr. level II, and Sr. staff probably isn't too far off. I get hit up by recruiters a lot, asking me if I want to relocate halfway across the country to take Sr. manufacturing engineering jobs because I have 2.5 years of experience on my resume from over a decade ago when I was right out of college. Is manufacturing still a good fit? (...no)
justareallylongemailaddress
I purposely said dot.net instead of their stupid NET nonsense.
leviaton
Yes, I've got an obligatory LinkedIn that has zero politics and just the occasional tech article to keep me visible. I'm in executive management and sales. Facebook, insta and the rest all seem like an awful idea.
SirRichfield
"Who are you and why can't I find you on social?" - "I'm an IT guy and … I'm an IT guy."
DustyBibbles
"Who are you and how did you get in here?"
Im a locksmith...and I'm a locksmith
AntaNce
And don't call me Shirley
TheDreadPirateMontoya
https://media3.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPWE1NzM3M2U1NjE4YmRyZnR0MWw4OTBtMDc5cWUweWZjcm85cjJmMnB0YmFhc2cxOSZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/3o6Zt47gpxj2Ol30oU/200w.webp
AntaNce
FortifiedWhine
Imgur is social media...
Lugh314159
Is it, though? To me, social media is a place where you want people to know who you are. Does anyone here actually use their real name?
So (to me, anyway) FB, IG, Snap, Twitter... All social media. While Reddit, Imgur, YouTube, etc, wouldn't be.
Might not 'technically' be right, but it feels right. Like asking if a tomato is a fruit or a vegetable.
FortifiedWhine
Hmmm, well a lot of people post their art, hobbies, their likes, politics, opinions etc. Fucking selfies at Xmas. Little car rants, things like that. Imgur is very definitely in the realm of social media IMHO.
bbrtki
As is discord.
Heck,. even the local supermarket is.
Or a local restaurant.
You go there, you are unintentionally being social. The only exception may be if you order your groceries and have them dead dropped at the front door.
FortifiedWhine
I read that as "dropped dead" and trying to think how a dead delivery person at your door would help things...
bbrtki
Yeah, some freaky people like to get social with corpses I hear.
CatShadowleaf
Plot twist, the delivery person IS the requested food.
procrastinatorman
Except imgur is also a kind of social media. You can be identified eventually
Wapusk
Yes, I can! Hi, I'm Wapusk, I believe LGBTQ2+ rights are human rights, abortion is Healthcare, fascists have forfeit the social contract and are free game, Isreal is an apartheid colonialist state that delights in the suffering of their oppressed class, billionaires have no right to exist, labour creates all wealth, white men are privileged, the President of the United States is a child rapist and murderer, the ruling class is already killing us so you may as well fight, what have you to lose?
AtmaDarkwolf
And with that, the president of the world ended his speech, and will not take any questions. We will address you all at the next cycles update period. Please enjoy the next year of peace...
DustyBibbles
Hi, I am also a random person and I agree with everything you've typed here, as well as, every one who voted for that orange piece of human trash are idiots and everyone should have the right to a open and free internet to be able to say these things without repercussions from our jobs...to an extent.
timmargh
NotThatPrivate
I picked my user name to remind me of that
YouRadicalizedMe
Cheers
LazerSpacePirate
Which has got me side eyeing OP right about now....
mieper3
I googled "hurt people fun" and saw that the first result was some kind of kinky sex site, so obviously @IHurtPeopleForFun is a dark web sex slave torture trafficker and you cannot convice me otherwise
/s