Monday began our week-long review of the new Social Media Credit Score concept, developed right here at JumpstartMyPC.com.  Today’s topic Who Sees Your Social Media Credit Score and Why? is part 3 of our look at the idea of  a Social Media Credit Score and how it might one day (or currently) affect your life.  We encourage you to look back at our last 2 articles (Article 1, Article 2), if you have not already read them, but here is what you’ve missed so far (flash card version).

Our Lineup of Potential Researchers

• Potential Employers – You might not be aware, but some employers use your Credit Report (the financial kind) as a tool to determine the type of person you are.  If you can’t handle your own finances, why would they let you handle theirs.  Why would social interactions be any different?  The way you promote your personal life and the decisions you make online (your SMCS) could in fact be a tool for potential employers.  An article from CBSNews.com from over 3 years ago uncovered this practice.  That was over 3 years ago!  Just imagine how many employers have adopted this practice since then.
• Family - Your first thought here is “oh, Mom and Dad might see what I write on Facebook or what I Tweet,” but you shouldn’t think NOW, you should be thinking FOREVER.  With the advancements in technology and storage capacities we have seen over the last few years, it is not out of the realm of possibility that EVERY single thing you post, share or comment on might become part of a permanent, searchable database.  What happens when your children decide to research Mom and Dad for that school project on their family tree?  Things might get really interesting.
  
• Friends - Your friends might not purposely research your SMCS, but they are taking in information about you constantly.  Your social media interactions could be seen by everyone.  Right now, Facebook posts are only shown to those you grant access, but will that always be the case?  Tweets and YouTube videos are no different.  Google has added Social Searches (in Beta now) to their standard search results.
• Federal Government - This is something that will blow your mind.  Uncle Sam has begun using social searches to track your finances.  “State revenue agents have begun nabbing scofflaws by mining information posted on social-networking Web sites, from relocation announcements to professional profiles to financial boasts. (taken from an article on msn.com from Sept. 2009)“  It seems that MySpace is one of their favorite sites to visit when hunting down a potential “client.”
  
• Credit Bureau/Agency – The “big brother” of your financial well-being already employs some interesting tactics for determining your financial Credit Score (see How Does My Driving Record Impact My Credit Score?) so it stands to reason that they might begin looking into your spending habits and lifestyle via another measurement tool, your Social Media Credit Score.
• Companies - If the credit agencies start reviewing your SMCS, then why wouldn’t potential lenders, like retail stores, banks or car dealerships?  They don’t want to risk a loan that will never be paid back, so they will turn to any public information that they can find to separate duds from studs.
  
• Thieves – Yeah, that is right, thieves!  Not just internet hackers and data miners, but honest-to-goodness “I’m gonna crawl in your window while you are vacation” thieves.  They have your address, they can find your phone number, then your email address, then your Facebook, Twitter, MySpace…. page and boom!  They have a monitoring system that will tell them when you will be gone on that family vacation for 2 weeks.  A simple search at search.twitter.com for “going on vacation” will give them the same information.

A Quick Search of "going on vacation" - Twitter

We will continue our look at the Social Media Credit Score tomorrow and through the rest of the week.  If you want to see more, add our blog (http://blog.jumpstartmypc.com) to your favorites or your favorite blog reader.  We’ll add new, FREE content every day that will help PC users get the most out of their computer.

Tags: Credit Score, Employers, Facebook, MySpace, Social Media, Social Media Credit Score, Social Networking, Thieves, Twitter, YouTube

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 6th, 2010 at 12:09 pm and is filed under Social Media Credit Score, Social Networking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.