In a press release today from executive outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, CEO John Challenger proclaimed that in the Internet age “technology serves to instantly connect seekers with employers, recruiters and job leads.”

The report offers tips for engaging social networks in your job search, including building your personal brand by starting a personal blog, joining professional networks like LinkedIn, and using Twitter to share your professional insights. But, be careful not to mix your personal social networks with your professional networks too much — a recent CareerBuilder study found that 35% of HR professionals had turned down a candidate due to inappropriate photographs, their poor online communication skills, and other poorly-chosen content placed on social networks.

For more information, and tips on how to use social networks to find a job, check out the report here. In Challenger’s words, make yourself “a product employers must have.”

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A recent article in the New York Times addressed the sensitive practice of posting photos of your children online.  Many parents find themselves using the good graces of modern technology, in the form of a digital camera and a Flickr or Picasa account, to share their family milestones with friends and relatives around the globe.  The article gives dual perspectives on the issue:  there is a very real risk that that photos you post of your kids online may be viewed by others or even stolen and misused, but the common fear that those photos might be used by pedophiles to harm your children is highly unlikely:

“Research shows that there is virtually no risk of pedophiles coming to get kids because they found them online,” said Stephen Balkam, chief executive of the Family Online Safety Institute. While the debate makes this crime seem common, he said, all the talk is really just “techno-panic.”

The Times interviewed several parent-bloggers who shared their personal advice to avoid having photos stolen, including adding a personal watermark to any publicly published photos on the Web.

Parents also warn that the biggest risk of posting photos of your kids (with their friends) is that other parents might lash back at you for sharing photos publicly.  ReputationDefender recommends asking permission to publish photos of friends, family, and others online prior to doing so, and if you want to monitor the spread of your kids’ photos and personal content on the Web, try MyChild today!  We’ll alert you when we find photos or personal information on blogs, social networks, and throughout the deep Web.

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According to a survey due to be released this Wednesday, two-thirds of Americans object to advertisers tracking their activities online.  The survey was a joint effort between Professors from University of California, Berkeley and the University of Pennsylvania.  They also found that when individuals were informed about the specific methods advertisers use to gather information in order to target ads, the percent of Americans in opposition to such tactics rose to as high as 86%. Download the survey here.

The survey reached 1,000 adult Internet users in America, and questions focused on whether consumers want new laws to protect the way that advertisers track personal “Web-histories.”  The majority of users desire more strict punishment of those advertisers that violate their personal privacy, and most believe that it should be illegal for advertisers to store their personal data at all.

If you’re concerned about how being tracked online, you can make sure to “clear cookies” in your web browser on a regular basis or you can use some of the largest advertising networks’  opt-out forms to do so permanently: Google, 24/7 Real Media, Doubleclick, Nielsen, ValueClick

We also suggest checking out the World Privacy Forum’s list of opt-out links, but be sure to consider whether you’d like to continue to receive targeted advertising first: Do you want to make sure advertisers show you the cheapest tickets for your upcoming trip to Hawaii? Or make sure you get ads that show you the latest and greatest gear for your sport-of-choice? Then you might want to leave the cookies alone.

For those of you who would like to dig deeper, check out this August article from Wired on how the next generation of Flash Cookies is making it more difficult for individuals to find out what advertisers are tracking them online.

Additionally, if you want to track and remove your personally identifiable information from the largest people-databases out there, we recommend signing up for The Global Do Not Call List today. We’ll help protect you against online and offline stalking, exposure of your personal data, nosy individuals and fraudsters.

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In a study released this week by outplacement services firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, personal ‘networking’ ranked as the number 1 resource that a job seeker can use to land a new gig. The firm surveyed top human resources executives earlier this month, asking them to rank the tools that potential hires are currently using to successfully get hired. Each job-search method was ranked on a score of 1 to 5, and ‘networking’ earned a 3.98 average ranking.

While 48% of respondents ranked traditional networking a perfect 5 out of 5 in the survey, 47% gave ‘online networking’ a 4 or a 5, making it a close second in the survey. Online networking, specifically via sites like LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook, received an average rating of 3.3. Online job boards were also found to be quite effective, with an average rating of 3.

Bringing up the tail-end of the survey of most useful job-seeking methods were Job Fairs and Newspaper Classified Ads, earning average scores of 1.6 and 1.7, respectively.

John Challenger, CEO of the outplacement firm, was careful to note that job seekers must rely on a variety of tools to secure a top-notch job offer:

“It is important to remember that the job search is a multifaceted process. Those who rely on just one tool, even if it is networking, will take longer to find a position. The problem with the ease and accessibility of the Internet is that many job seekers make it their primary job search tool. Overuse of the Internet also threatens to prolong the hiring process on the employer’s end, as well, by inundating employers with irrelevant resumes.”

Challenger notes that the Internet should only be used to back up traditional, in-person networking as the most effective piece of the job seeker toolkit. In a blog post earlier this month, Owen Tripp also offered several tips to supplement traditional networking with online professional networking on LinkedIn. As you network, make sure to keep an eye on your virtual resume, and to take the steps necessary to get an extra edge over the competition when you apply for your next job.

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Five individuals filed a civil lawsuit against Facebook earlier today, alleging that Facebook has misled users and failed to respect California state privacy laws.   From the Wall Street Journal:

“Plaintiffs and the general public desire and expect a level of privacy, which Facebook has failed to satisfy under its current policies, procedures, practices, and technology,” the complaint states. The plaintiffs, which include a photographer, an actress, and some middle school and college students, are demanding damages and attorney’s fees and requesting a jury trial.

This complaint, the first of its kind as far as we know, comes on the heels of the Canadian Privacy Commissioner’s recent report on Facebook’s lack of privacy safeguards against a major privacy breach.  It’s worth noting, though, Facebook announced this morning that it plans to revise its privacy and security policies to bring them in line with Canadian privacy law, and satisfy the demands of Commissioner Stoddart’s report.

Be sure to check out our previous posts on protecting your privacy on Facebook and how Facebook Applications are mining your personal data.

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