My boss may kill me if I admit this, but whenever I get a free moment at work, a constant habit I have is to sign on to Facebook (News - Alert) or Twitter, to see what new status my friends post, or what new pictures of last weekend’s parties have surfaced.

But, every single time I am about to start updating my own status or posting information about me online, I stop and think to myself: do I really want this to be public? I’m sure you’ll guess that, most of the time, the answer is no.

While I am pretty practical and often don’t publicize my personal life, other people are not as progressive thinkers. So, when reports surfaced that a person’s online lifestyle could potentially hurt more than just reputation, but mainly a person’s credit, I wasn’t surprised.

Reports now say that social networking activities could prevent a person from getting a loan for a house, car or other big purchase. Since banks and other financial institutions are using Facebook and Twitter to target consumers through ad campaigns, an underlying goal to find those good credit customers is rumored to be the end goal.

But, how do these organizations find out this information? Well,reportedly, by collected data from social networks and by “checking out” people’s social networking sites online.

Erica Sandberg, a personal-finance expert and columnist for CreditCards.com, said that creditors look at your network to see whether you would be a good credit customer. The idea is that if your friends pay their bills on time, so will you.

So, the question stands: if a bank or other institution looks at your profile, what will they see?