Are you a LinkedIn liar? You might be about to get caught out

When it comes to CVs there are usually three separate camps. The brutally honest types that include everything from SAT results via GCSEs to their BAs, through a rite of passage that includes paper rounds, bar work and admin. Their CVs and LinkedIn profiles reading like a brutally honest, warts and all professional biography.

Then you have the embellishers. The ones that manage to say a great deal without actually really saying anything at all. You know the types. The people that could sell you a bag of fresh air and use phrases like '360 degree powerhouse with a multi-faceted approach to platformification and passion for regenerative, collaborative and quasi- individualised work ethic.'

And then you have the liars. The ones that start off with a slight exaggeration and finish by telling you they've done a masters in Chinese linguistics, are grade four on the piano and once snogged Pippa Middleton at an indie night in York. And it's this final type of CV pimping, LinkedIn user that needs to be worried - because the game is up.

The business-focused social media site is set to introduce a recently patented (and very clever) fact-checking system that will trawl through thousands upon thousands of LinkedIn profiles, putting them through a cyber lie detector test.

The test will work by running your claims through the archives of the Internet to verify your claims. For example, the 'company award' that you got for 'Best creative commercial pitch', - the site will track down sources to back this fact up. If there's little to verify it, it'll ask you for further information. 

The same will apply for educational records, job history and a whole host of other areas. If you can't prove your LinkedIn claim you'll be prevented from posting it. 

Obviously this is still very much in the teething process and there will always be certain pieces of data that the site won't be able to get access to (we can't see every university in the country opening up its results data for LinkedIn to have a nose through) but it's definitely a glimpse into the 'not-so-private' future of personal internet use. 

So liars beware. It might be time to own up to the fact that you've pulling everyone's leg about "that time you were in Eastenders...". 

[Via: TechRadar]