Employers able to request your Facebook password

Boy Wonder · Mar 29, 2012

House Republicans on Wednesday defeated an amendment that would have banned current or prospective employers from requiring workers to hand over personal passwords as a condition of keeping or getting a new job.
"What this amendment does is it says that you cannot demand, as a condition of employment, that somebody reveal a confidential password to their Facebook, to their Flickr, to their Twitter, whatever their account may be," Rep. Ed Perlmutter, the Colorado Democrat who authored the amendment, said during a Wednesday floor speech.
The amendment, however, which was added to a larger FCC reform package, was defeated this afternoon by a vote of 236 to 185. It was largely split down party lines, with 183 Democrats voting in favor of the amendment and 234 Republicans voting against it.
The issue made headlines recently when it was reported that some employers were asking workers or applicants to hand over their Facebook passwords or allow employers to look over their shoulders as they clicked through their accounts. The publicity over the issue prompted Facebook to step up and say the practice was against its terms of service.
In an interview with PCMag today, Fred Wolens, Facebook's public policy manager, said the company opted to make a public statement because "there were a lot of questions and implications that I'm not sure employers were considering when engaging in these practices."
Chief among them, he said, was the fact that by signing into an employee's Facebook account, employers were not only gaining access to their worker's account but the accounts of friends who showed up on the newsfeed.
"You're very fundamentally breaking the privacy of not just [your employee] but their friends," Wolens said.
There's also a liability issue, he continued. A Facebook profile might contain information about disability or pregnancy status, which could open a company up to employee discrimination suits.
"We give users control [over their information], and when you give away your password, it fundamentally changes your relationship with Facebook," Wolens said. "Employers would not ask people for their email passwords or bank account statement, and I think the implications are very similar, if not the same, to peoples' Facebook passwords."
Late last week, Sens. Chuck Schumer and Richard Blumenthal asked the Justice Department and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to investigate whether employee password requests violate federal law. Wolens said today that Facebook looks forward "to engaging with lawmakers on this issue."
Rep. Perlmutter suggested that employers don't need access to Facebook accounts. Traditional means of checking references and doing background checks are sufficient, he said today. They can "do it as themselves - not as imposters," he said.
But for today, at least, the issue will not be resolved in Congress. As noted by TechCrunch, Republicans were not convinced the amendment was necessary, but said they would be open to addressing the issue in separate legislation.
Click to expand...

SOURCE
The issue that made headlines was one state's Department of Corrections asking to "shoulder surf" applicant's facebook during interviews. They had also asked employees who have been working there for their facebook password until one employee spoke up and they went back to "shoulder surfing."

Always Dance · Mar 29, 2012

Absolutely ridiculous. Isn't it illegal to ask for race, age, religion, and sexual orientation? Well Facebook gives all those things, so how is that legal to ask?

Peace and War · Mar 29, 2012

Illegal. And inappropriate.

You can check someone on facebook fine enough if they have it open and available to the public, if not too bad employer, you're just gonna have to do a regular criminal records check and see how the interview goes.

They have no justification for this, plain, simple.

Misty · Mar 29, 2012

It's incredibly strange to me that anyone would vote against this. ._. Then again Republicans in general don't make much sense to me, but sheesh.

I can understand employers checking your Facebook before hiring, just to see if there's anything unsavory about you, but having your password is just weird and unnecessary.

EvilMan_89 · Mar 29, 2012

well, i've been following this story for weeks and it turns out that many companies will ask you to login during the interview instead of asking you to give out the login credentials. they did this in response to news agencies pressing them about it not being ok to have login credentials. not that it's much better (it is better but not much!). but i know that quite a lot of people would not fight this during an interview because they just can't afford to stand up for their beliefs rather than get a paycheck. i'm usually not one to care about my privacy being invaded but this would make me uncomfortable during an interview as well if i actually still had a Facebook account.

Slaughtermatic said: ↑

Absolutely ridiculous. Isn't it illegal to ask for race, age, religion, and sexual orientation? Well Facebook gives all those things, so how is that legal to ask?
Click to expand...

there's quite a lot of speculation that this tactic is to get around the legality of asking those kinds of questions.

Amaury · Mar 29, 2012

My mom and I saw this on the news this morning. It's absolutely ridiculous.

It's a total invasion of someone's privacy. How they think they can get away with this is beyond me.

Arch · Mar 29, 2012

For your average job this shouldn't happen at all. >> Not much else to say that hasn't been said already.

However, for those seeking careers in law enforcement and such, it wouldn't be any problem and I'd actually encourage this. Sometimes a thorough background check is necessary. Though for having just about every employer being able to do something like this? That's too extreme.

AlexleHoshi · Apr 3, 2012

A Facebook profile might contain information about disability or pregnancy status
Click to expand...

Shouldn't this information be filled in on the job application anyway? As for asking for employers passwords.... No just no, not matter what the job is, this shouldn't be asked, aren't we always told 'Don't give out your password blah blah blah' if they want to find out about the people who are working for them or are going to then a regular criminal records check is what's needed.

Twilight Sparkle · Apr 3, 2012

No, sorry, but I'm not giving my facebook away to my boss, no matter who they are.
Some things like that are just too personal, and your boss should realize that.

venster · Apr 3, 2012

That....is just stupid....JUST STUPID. Why would they need your password? There is absolutely no reason why. You have rights to show what you want to show on your facebook and if your employer wants that info, you can show them yourself.

Log in or Sign up

Employers able to request your Facebook password

Boy Wonder Dark Phoenix in Training

Contributor

Always Dance Chaser

Premium

Peace and War Bianca, you minx!

Premium

Misty gimme kiss

Premium

EvilMan_89 Code Master

Premium

Amaury Chaser

Premium

Arch Mana Knight

Moderator

AlexleHoshi Dude called Alex

Premium

Twilight Sparkle Merlin's Housekeeper

venster You never heard of me, but I pop in time to time

Premium