On Topic: Not-so private eyes, they’re watching you

It was without a trace of irony when my wife said, 'It was in the news.”

I'd pointed out what appeared to me to be the amazing coincidence of how LinkedIn was suggesting I might want to connect with a veterinarian at Iowa State University with whom I'd had a brief email correspondence about our pet rabbit more than a year ago. I'd wondered to whom the vet and I might be connected (aside from the rabbit, of course).

That was when my wife explained how she'd read Linked In scours email addresses from our email activity, then translates that into suggestions for potential 'links.”

It was in the news, apparently. How did I not know that?

Moreover, I can't say that I like the idea.

But apparently not everyone harbors the same trepidations. A quick skim through Facebook, Twitter and other social media shows how comfortable - if that's the right word - many folk have become in revealing details about their personal and professional lives.

It doesn't take a criminal mastermind to determine who's on vacation, leaving her or his home unguarded; who's more than willing to vent about an employer; and not only can we find out about their favorite stores, football teams and breakfast choices, religion and political leanings also are declared for all to read.

Maybe I no longer should be, but I've been surprised more than once when a job candidate's resume listed information that mentioned her campaign work for a political candidate. There was a time, not all that long ago, when you never mentioned a political or religious affiliation when job hunting - not that you necessarily should be ashamed of those convictions - but that you just don't know how, even subtly, they might color the thinking of the person doing the hiring.

(And I certainly wouldn't want a prospective employee to think later that he or she didn't get a position because those details were in the resume.)

Now we have 24/7 Facebook anecdotes about cat shenanigans, photos of youngsters and boss-bashing tweets. Surely posters realize time stamps show they put up those items during the work day, right? At a time when - if it's necessary to state what should be obvious - they're supposed to be working?

I don't want to sound like the cranky guy down the street who's always yelling at neighborhood children to stay off his yard. But one big question, I guess, is this: When did we decide we no longer care about privacy?

So, to conclude today's sermon, heed this: Be careful what you proclaim in your resume, and be circumspect as to what is dispensed in social discourse.

And, for goodness sakes, wait until you get home before you put up that video - cute though it is - of your Shar Pei stealing your toddler's peanut butter sandwich.

You never know who's watching.

' Michael Chevy Castranova is enterprise editor and Sunday business editor of The Gazette. (319) 398-5873; michael.castranova@thegazette.com