So, spoiler alert: Facebook's new search tool is being used as designed, which allows searchers to elicit information about 'friends' and strangers that was never intended to be shared or searched.
'Current Employers of People Who Like Racism' ... and More Actual Facebook Graph Searches - The Atlantic
Funny story: at one time, SJN Sales had staffers called 'researchers'. Among other duties, these folks pulled the loose threads at the edge of every resume we received, looking for unrevealed data about the placement candidate. Once, this had the result of a sales job assignment being filled in 8 days (it had been empty for 7 months) by a candidate our researcher recruited. Her secret sauce? Recognizing that the hiring location was located near a state border, she made 15 calls across the line and matched a skilled sales pro with her dream job.
It wouldn't be terribly difficult to run Graph to make it do that kind of connecting for you--in fact, that's what it's for. So the interesting question is, What are the costs and benefits to all of us from anyone who can operate a keyboard getting access to the kinds of connections that once required both inspiration and skill? In the case of employment recruiting, the industry has changed so much that it doesn't exist anymore: SJN Sales reviews few resumes today, for the simple reason that we've become an outside sales company.
What are the benign applications of this aggregation power, and do they outweigh the differentially extracted price paid for it? More from the tech desk at Slate.
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