Can Your Employer Get Your Facebook Password?
Imagine this... You go on a job interview and are asked for your Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter user names and passwords. What would you do? What would you think about this company? Can something like this really happen?
This is what actually happened in Bozeman, Montana, US. The city was asking potential employees for this personal information. They've since stopped, but what does this say about the state of hiring in the US?
"inadvertently comes across information about the applicant's age, race, family planning, religion or any other protected status, and that information improperly influences the hiring decision, they could then be liable for discrimination on state and/or federal levels." ~Lora Bentley, ITBusinessEdge
I never thought about it this way. I was more concerned about the extreme level of personal privacy that's being invaded when a potential employer encroaches in on a potential employees Facebook space and starts nosing around. Shouldn't you be allowed to speak your opinions in a personal space like Facebook without wondering what some person you never met, but has your life in his hands, is thinking about you?
Lora's right though. US law protects people from discrimination against age, race, religion and other personal beliefs. There are so many things that someone can find out from your Facebook even before the interview. They're bound to guess your age at the interview, so that's not really protected that much, but the rest can be hidden, except for your online habits.
Sure they can look at my websites, they might benefit from a read….I don’t have to give them the passwords to access this though. If they are that inquisitive I will let them into anything I don’t display to the general public. This is of course an act of friendship and trust in itself. Now, they have viewed my profile and my friends, I want to view theirs. Respect is earned, not applied for in a job application. These are the people that used to get their asses kicked in the school yards and seem to have not learned their lessons about mutual respect. Do I need that job so bad I would bare my soul perhaps to a “potential” employer…NO THANK YOU!!! Best of luck in finding their pawn.
I don’t think anyone needs to know everything about everyone just to employ them. I even think it’s intrusive when they make you stand up at job orientation and “tell us about yourself”. Maybe I don’t want to tell you who I am and what I do outside this company, if I wanted to share that information, I would have.