In the recent months it has become common for employers to use Web sites such as Facebook to gather information about job candidates.

On the surface this technique may appear to infringe upon the fundamental right to free speech, but anyone who willingly posts personal information and photographs on such sites really shouldn't have a reasonable expectation to privacy.

The First Amendment provides the right to free speech for every American, but it does not protect against the consequences resulting from an American saying -- or in this case posting on a public Web site -- whatever he or she pleases.

The use of the site by Penn State University Police to catch students who rushed the field more than a month after the Ohio State game was unnecessary.

The police weren't able to do their jobs at the game, so they resorted to combing through Facebook groups such as "I rushed the field after the OSU game (and lived!)" to catch offenders. But in terms of making personnel decisions for a company, employers using Facebook and other sites such as MySpace and Google to gather any and all pertinent information on future employees are merely making wise business choices.

Will an employer decide not to hire someone solely on the basis of his or her affiliation with the group "Drinker by day, drunker by night"? Hopefully not.

But if it comes down to using Facebook to choose between two equally qualified individuals, the first of whom is a drinker by day and the second of whom is only affiliated with the group "Habitat for Humanity," the latter does seem a lot more appealing.

Students who want to protect their Facebook profiles from potential employers can modify their user settings to limit any unwanted viewers.

And of course there is the obvious alternative to avoid such problems: do not post any information you do not want to be read by employers on Facebook.

Your right to free speech is protected by the First Amendment, but your right to get hired by a prominent investment firm is not.