Monday, February 21, 2011
Would you give a potential employer your Facebook password?
Posted by Kevin Allman on Mon, Feb 21, 2011 at 1:22 PM
As part of the department's background check procedures, all new applicants and those seeking recertification are required to turn over usernames and passwords for social media accounts. This, predictably, has set off alarms with privacy advocates who view this as a gross violation of an individual's rights. Note, this is not reading an applicants public Twitter feed; this is digging through personal correspondance and rummaging through posts made not just by the applicant, but by his or her friends and family.
Here's what Collins had to say:
"I understood the investigator to be saying that I had no choice but to hand over my Facebook login and password if I wanted to continue my employment with the Division of Corrections. We live in a time when national security is the highest priority, but it must be delicately balanced with personal privacy. My fellow officers and I should not have to allow the government to view our personal Facebook posts and those of our friends, just to keep our jobs."
The MDOC hasn't responded to Collins' and the ACLU's letter, nor has the agency made any public statement.
After Katrina, I was looking for an apartment in another city where the rental agency told me they needed to see my last five tax returns. I thought that was outrageous (and told 'em to go whistle), but Internet passwords? What's next? Your Gmail password? Your banking account password?
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Like checking your tax records, this is how prospective employers/landlords weed out those individuals they do not want to hire without having to give actual cause. You know, like "I don't want to hire that guy because of his skin color" or "my friends want these jobs and I don't want them to compete with other applicants."
Friends are in, those who complain don't get the job/apartment. You comply with the letter of civil rights law if not the spirit.
Opening someone-elses physical mail is a federal offense, right? Isn't email the technological evolution from physical mail?
No one would sanction employers to require you to hand over your birthday cards, love-letters, photo-albums, and other correspondence, in order to get or keep a job. So, how is going through someone's electronic equivalant any different?
Same with handing over any personal passwords!
Would they ask for the combination to your house-safe to go through whatever papers you keep in there?
