Your Facebook profile may cost you a job or promotion.

In one University of Dayton survey of employers, 40 percent of respondents said they’d consider Facebook data when making hiring decisions. So while social- network lies might not immediately cost you a job, they could come back to haunt you. “We don’t know how long the information you post today will remain on the Web,” says Susan Barnes, associate director of the Lab for Social Computing at the Rochester Institute of Technology. “Once information is out there, it’s really difficult to erase.”

Have you audited your name on Google? Type in your full name in quotes, and see what comes up. Chances are your potential boss did the same thing. While there is no need to panic for stuff that is obviously not yours, if you did post up pictures of last New Year’s party, you might want to consider taking them down. Consider that it can take up to 3 months for a search engine or directory to update its index, so don’t leave it for last minute.

HT: Urban Onramps