Connecticut Senator Says Facebook Passwords Should Not Be Sought By Employers

[Platapus]

Originally Posted by soopaman2

My wife had to sign a form at her job stating she would not talk bad about the company on social media.

.

Sad that the employer thought this was necessary. I was brought up not to bite the hand that feeds you or to translate in this context: Bon't badmouth the people that are paying you money that allows you to feed your family. . It is not very professional.

I guess people are not brought up that way any more.

[soopaman2]

Originally Posted by Platapus

Sad that the employer thought this was necessary. I was brought up not to bite the hand that feeds you or to translate in this context: Bon't badmouth the people that are paying you money that allows you to feed your family. . It is not very professional.

I guess people are not brought up that way any more.

Are you implying something? It sure sounds like you are.

My wife does not even have a facebook or twitter account, this was done company-wide.

My wife does not badmouth her company in public, nor feels any need to, she just felt betrayed after given years of trust, considering she is in a managment position. Assume all are disloyal, is the vibe she caught from it.


I am offended by your assumptions.

And I am really restraining myself.

[mookiemookie]

Originally Posted by soopaman2

Are you implying something? It sure sounds like you are.

My wife does not even have a facebook or twitter account, this was done company-wide.

My wife does not badmouth her company in public, nor feels any need to, she just felt betrayed after given years of trust, considering she is in a managment position. Assume all are disloyal, is the vibe she caught from it.


I am offended by your assumptions.

And I am really restraining myself.

I don't think he was implying that it was your wife specifically. I think he was talking more in general terms. At least that's the way I took it.

[Platapus]

Two U.S. senators will ask the Justice Department to investigate whether employers who require job applicants to hand over confidential passwords to Facebook and other social networking sites are violating federal law, the lawmakers said today.

New York Senator Charles Schumer, the Senate’s third- ranking Democrat, and Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut, will ask the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to examine the practice as well.

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/world/5...ctice.html.csp


That's good news anyway. I can not see any justification for requiring the surrender of passwords. The employer is free to access the public side of anyone's facebook and make hiring/firing decisions based on this information in a Right to Work State. But asking for passwords makes no sense.


I am glad that Justice and EEOC are being asked to look into this. I hope the individual states follow suit.

[soopaman2]

Originally Posted by mookiemookie

I don't think he was implying that it was your wife specifically. I think he was talking more in general terms. At least that's the way I took it.

Thats cool, I just do not want my old lady lumped in with the "social hens" , who feel a need to tweet when they are taking a dump. If I jumped unfairly then I am sorry, if I didn't, then well...

Just me being me

Though this is more about intrusion of privacy. The government can't even access passcodes without some kind of good legal reasons, why do corporations get carte blanche to do what our government cannot?

Because they own our govern.....*gunshot*

[mookiemookie]

It's a very simple answer if you're ever asked to hand over your personal passwords. Tell them you won't hand them over unless the interviewer hands over the password to the company network. I mean you have to have access to all of those trade secrets and confidential data to see what kind of company it is that you'd be working for, right?

[Platapus]

North Virginia is a "Right to work" state. I remember when I was hired by my first company, I had to sign an agreement acknowledging that while the company could fire me at any time, I was required to give the company 2 weeks notice.

Nice to see fairness and equality in an employment contract.

[MothBalls]

No facebook, twitter, myspace, nothing, ever. Never had and never will. I keep up with friends by doing things with them, talking to them on the phone, and the occasional email with a picture or a joke. A few years back had a client ask me to get on Linkedin and I refused.

My "persona" here on Subsim is about as public as it gets. I was trying to get the name "Mothballed" but it was taken, so mothballs was close enough. Aside from videos games and the occasional forum visit, I try to stay offline. SO much data mining going on. If someone wants to know something about me they can ask me.

[August]

Originally Posted by Platapus

North Virginia is a "Right to work" state. I remember when I was hired by my first company, I had to sign an agreement acknowledging that while the company could fire me at any time, I was required to give the company 2 weeks notice.

Nice to see fairness and equality in an employment contract.

Y'know they asked me to agree to the same thing, a month after being hired. My question then as now is "or what"? I've never really gotten a satisfactory answer.

[mookiemookie]

Originally Posted by August

Y'know they asked me to agree to the same thing, a month after being hired. My question then as now is "or what"? I've never really gotten a satisfactory answer.

Heh...good one!

I was laid off in 2005 and they gave me three months of severance pay. I had to come in and train someone else to be my replacement though. I figured they kind of had me over a barrel on that one as they could have said "ok, you don't come in, we cut off your severance."

They had to call me and call me but I finally came in for about an hour and begrudgingly gave the most halfassed training session possible. Jackasses.

[CaptainHaplo]

WOW! Platypus, Mookie, August and I all agree on this issue.

Is it December 2012 already????

I can understand the desire of a company HR person to check out the candidate fully - after all, if your a bank and your prospect has a bunch of pictures of himself at a casino with captions complaining of how he just lost his shirt, it could indicate that he might not be the best to control money unsupervised. Someone always posting how drunk they are may not be the best person to run the liquor store. It goes to the desire to get more insight regarding the person's character.

However, while I understand the desire - that doesn't make it right or ethical. Do I have a problem with the question being asked? Not really. The problem is one of legality. Is it discrimination to refuse to consider an applicant that refuses to provide such data? The real legal question is that if someone posts something on the interwebz, is it considered private? I mean, the net isn't exactly a private place by its nature.

Remember - sites like facebook didn't always have "privacy settings" - if you posted it - it was "out there". If you post and use privacy settings, your abrogating (aka trusting another party) the responsibility to make sure such data you want hidden really is. As most such sites are not service providers for pay, can a "consumer" claim a right to privacy has been breached? I could go on and on regarding the legal quagmire.

Its wrong, its unethical if its a condition of consideration - but its not illegal for them to ask. They still should not do so. On that I think we can all agree.

[Platapus]

Originally Posted by August

Y'know they asked me to agree to the same thing, a month after being hired. My question then as now is "or what"? I've never really gotten a satisfactory answer.

Since it is not legally enforceable, I had no problems signing it.

What are they going to do, not give me severance pay if I quit.

[Penguin]

*bump*

Another victory for corporate America:
IL Follows Suit: Employers Right To Ask For Social Media Passwords Codified Into Law

This is beyond ridiculous: it is illegal for an employer in the US to ask about a candidate's religion (rightly so), but asking for information which could contain much more intimate details is ok?

Another big legal problem I see there, is that the employer could obtain private details about third parties who sent infos meant only for the eyes of the job candidate.

[Jimbuna]

*bump* indeed

[Ducimus]

Originally Posted by Buddahaid

That's the reason I eschew social media.

Ditto. I don't do facebook or anything like it.

Originally Posted by mookiemookie

And then the interviewer thinks "Antisocial? Something to hide? Not keeping up with modern times?" and they go with the guy willing to give up his password.

And my response would be, "No sir, I don't have a facebook account. I've worked in the internet security field for 13 years, and in my professional opinion, posting real world personal information about oneself on the internet, is not the wisest of choices one could make."