Job seekers getting asked for Facebook passwords

http://www.fox11online.com/dpps/new...asked-for-facebook-passwords-ob12-jgr_4111321



'It's akin to requiring someone's house keys'

Updated: Tuesday, 20 Mar 2012, 7:23 AM CDT
Published : Tuesday, 20 Mar 2012, 5:28 AM CDT

MANUEL VALDES and SHANNON MCFARLAND,Associated Press
SEATTLE (AP) — When Justin Bassett interviewed for a new job, he expected the usual questions about experience and references. So he was astonished when the interviewer asked for something else: his Facebook username and password.

Bassett, a New York City statistician, had just finished answering a few character questions when the interviewer turned to her computer to search for his Facebook page. But she couldn't see his private profile. She turned back and asked him to hand over his login information.

Bassett refused and withdrew his application, saying he didn't want to work for a company that would seek such personal information. But as the job market steadily improves, other job candidates are confronting the same question from prospective employers, and some of them cannot afford to say no.

In their efforts to vet applicants, some companies and government agencies are going beyond merely glancing at a person's social networking profiles and instead asking to log in as the user to have a look around.

"It's akin to requiring someone's house keys," said Orin Kerr, a George Washington University law professor and former federal prosecutor who calls it "an egregious privacy violation."

Questions have been raised about the legality of the practice, which is also the focus of proposed legislation in Illinois and Maryland that would forbid public agencies from asking for access to social networks.

Since the rise of social networking, it has become common for managers to review publically available Facebook profiles, Twitter accounts and other sites to learn more about job candidates. But many users, especially on Facebook, have their profiles set to private, making them available only to selected people or certain networks.

Companies that don't ask for passwords have taken other steps — such as asking applicants to friend human resource managers or to log in to a company computer during an interview. Once employed, some workers have been required to sign non-disparagement agreements that ban them from talking negatively about an employer on social media.

Asking for a candidate's password is more prevalent among public agencies, especially those seeking to fill law enforcement positions such as police officers or 911 dispatchers.

Back in 2010, Robert Collins was returning to his job as a security guard at the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services after taking a leave following his mother's death. During a reinstatement interview, he was asked for his login and password, purportedly so the agency could check for any gang affiliations. He was stunned by the request but complied.

"I needed my job to feed my family. I had to," he recalled,

After the ACLU complained about the practice, the agency amended its policy, asking instead for job applicants to log in during interviews.

"To me, that's still invasive. I can appreciate the desire to learn more about the applicant, but it's still a violation of people's personal privacy," said Collins, whose case inspired Maryland's legislation.

Until last year, the city of Bozeman, Mont., had a long-standing policy of asking job applicants for passwords to their email addresses, social-networking websites and other online accounts.

And since 2006, the McLean County, Ill., sheriff's office has been one of several Illinois sheriff's departments that ask applicants to sign into social media sites to be screened.

Chief Deputy Rusty Thomas defended the practice, saying applicants have a right to refuse. But no one has ever done so. Thomas said that "speaks well of the people we have apply."

When asked what sort of material would jeopardize job prospects, Thomas said "it depends on the situation" but could include "inappropriate pictures or relationships with people who are underage, illegal behavior."

In Spotsylvania County, Va., the sheriff's department asks applicants to friend background investigators for jobs at the 911 dispatch center and for law enforcement positions.

"In the past, we've talked to friends and neighbors, but a lot of times we found that applicants interact more through social media sites than they do with real friends," said Capt. Mike Harvey. "Their virtual friends will know more about them than a person living 30 yards away from them."

Harvey said investigators look for any "derogatory" behavior that could damage the agency's reputation.

E. Chandlee Bryan, a career coach and co-author of the book "The Twitter Job Search Guide," said job seekers should always be aware of what's on their social media sites and assume someone is going to look at it.

Bryan said she is troubled by companies asking for logins, but she feels it's not a violation if an employer asks to see a Facebook profile through a friend request. And she's not troubled by non-disparagement agreements.

"I think that when you work for a company, they are essentially supporting you in exchange for your work. I think if you're dissatisfied, you should go to them and not on a social media site," she said.

More companies are also using third-party applications to scour Facebook profiles, Bryan said. One app called BeKnown can sometimes access personal profiles, short of wall messages, if a job seeker allows it.

Sears is one of the companies using apps. An applicant has the option of logging into the Sears job site through Facebook by allowing a third-party application to draw information from the profile, such as friend lists.

Sears Holdings Inc. spokeswoman Kim Freely said using a Facebook profile to apply allows Sears to be updated on the applicant's work history.

The company assumes "that people keep their social profiles updated to the minute, which allows us to consider them for other jobs in the future or for ones that they may not realize are available currently," she said.

Giving out Facebook login information violates the social network's terms of service. But those terms have no real legal weight, and experts say the legality of asking for such information remains murky.

The Department of Justice regards it as a federal crime to enter a social networking site in violation of the terms of service, but during recent congressional testimony, the agency said such violations would not be prosecuted.

But Lori Andrews, law professor at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law specializing in Internet privacy, is concerned about the pressure placed on applicants, even if they voluntarily provide access to social sites.

"Volunteering is coercion if you need a job," Andrews said.

Neither Facebook nor Twitter responded to repeated requests for comment.

In New York, Bassett considered himself lucky that he was able to turn down the consulting gig at a lobbying firm.

"I think asking for account login credentials is regressive," he said. "If you need to put food on the table for your three kids, you can't afford to stand up for your belief."

___

McFarland reported from Springfield, Ill.

 

This is why I don't have a Facebook account.

 

Having a Facebook account isn't the problem. The fact that people want to log into your account is.

Would you be ok with someone wanting your username and password for this site?

Same difference. Just Facebook is a monstrosity that can't be stopped.

And no one should be able to ask you for such personal information and then deny you a job based on it.
Hell, I don't think I would let my SO know my fb password. Let alone my employer who has no business with it anyway.

 

Wow. That is too much invasion of privacy.

 

Someone would've probably given it to her.

 

If there is one thing people never come to terms with is the fact that privacy doesn't really exist when you post any information, personal or otherwise. It's easily capable of reaching through any servers since the internet is an interconnected piece of technology. SkyNet from the Terminator franchise is a good analogy of what I'm talking about - a web interwoven together. Can't prevent information from being spread once its been posted.

All you can do is prolong or suppress it enough.

But back on topic, it does invade privacy since they are linking your personal life with your work life and why should your personal life and actions affect where you work? Pretty damn sad. But hey, we reap the benefits and negatives when entering the World Wide Web.

 

My best friend and I were just discussing this story last week, however in the one I read it also had that one high school's sports department, if you are on the team, you MUST FRIEND a member of faculty of which they have permission to monitor your posts on FB. This is to ensure you are conducting yourself correctly as a rep of the football/basketball team. That's just ugly.

 

I get that once its out there it's out there. That's why I'm so glad that I'm not a reckless drunk/high teen with a fb account. Oh the shame.

I could see an employers right to spy on fb if what was being posted was in violation of a work contract or a conflict of interest.

I don't think anyone would go to a neighbors house and tell them they wanna have a look see about the place to see just what they are dealing with. What if the people had a hobby such as collecting shrinking heads that they don't normally display? It was out and the neighbor saw it? They would probably walk away with the wrong impression. Same with face book. So you went out after a stressful work week got drunk and planked with your equally drunk best friend. So do you do that AT work? Probably no.

How does what you do in your private off time have any bearing on your employer or whether you get to keep your job?

 

Very good question and the answers are unfounded from those who don't mind such intrusions.

I think in sites like Facebook, the employers are more concerned about people not keeping their comments to themselves about how bad the work day is. And thus, it could stir a major pot. Free speech vs. the limitations of the first Amendment rights.

 

This is why it's important to control the content. However what I do like is that the invasion of privacy laws now regard your email as the same as private mail..so that nonsense of if you put it in an email is like making a billboard, is moot.

Honestly, other laws need to catch up, too. Snooping through a peephole or a landlord perv putting a spy camera in an apartment is often times only met with a slap on the wrist.

 

There are many venues now that allows privacy controls for the individual users themselves. The problem are the user themselves who openly posts whatever content they feel like posting. Websites can only do so much to give people the opportunity to limit what others can see. But, in the end, the users themselves should think carefully on what they post on the 'net if they yearn for privacy.

 

Absolutely!

 

The only REAL solution...ehhhh...won't share it since it'll open a can of worms and THEN it'll be another discussion altogether.

Carry on, ya'll!

 

Oh you fucking tease!

 

I was leery of "social networking" from it's beginning. The information we post on the internet is ungoverned, unregulated, and takes on a life of it's own once we've post the most trivial detail about ourselves, friends, and whoever else crosses our paths... FB allows contributors to "tag" photos that non-participants of FB are unaware of....

Last week, we discussed a teacher who had previously performed in adult entertainment (porn), and was suspended pending whatever... A student found her out via the net and her colleagues sold her out... Should the "that was then" influence the "this is now"?

Company standards, like ethics, are subjective... What may be acceptable in one's mind, house, community, or even time frame may fall outside the line at the change of a second hand... And because the net is so lucid and ill-defined, companies can use any excuse in the books to deny qualified candidates if said candidates have "skeletons" in the closet or full front out in the open...

I expect this practice of asking for keys into people's private worlds to result in numerous lawsuits/litigation before the Supreme Court weighs in....

With all of the other invasive checks (credit, criminal, etc.,) companies already do, it's wonder they hire anyone... Check that... They try not to....

 

All that's gonna happen is anyone smart enough will just make a new fb account and change the profile name on the current one. This will only weed out people either caught off guard or too lazy and dumb to take preventive measures.

 

Shall I perform a striptease?

 

Somehows if someone was gunna think of this work around it would be The Knight.

What if you just tell them you don't have an account? It's all off the record, right? It's not like it goes on your application which is what can get you fired if you lie on it?

 

How about the strip part and not the tease part?

I haven't gotten enuff sleep lately. I get cheeky.

 

Agree.

To me if I were asked that I would really have to ask is this a company I want to work for. Some companies are nitpicky to the point of running through employees and ruining careers. If they are in your business like this ahead of hiring then it could mean a company that is difficult to work for and where you have no "rights".