Do you need loads of Facebook friends to get a job? Maybe, if a new company called Reppify gets its way. Corporate recruiters and HR departments are turning to Reppify to determine how well prospective employees perform online: They examine applicants’ presences on a variety of social networks such as Facebook and LinkedIn and compile what they call a job fit score. The score takes into account how many friends an applicant has, how much influence they wield and a number of other criteria. Reppify won’t divulge private information to prospective employers without the applicant giving permission, but the organization will provide businesses as much application information as it can. That makes Reppify pretty controversial for privacy advocates. “If people don’t set privacy settings (in their social networks), they are in a way consenting to have their information out there,” says Tena Friery of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. (Wired)