Employers Asking for Passwords to Employees’ Facebook Accounts
March 22nd, 2012Update: Facebook Might Sue Employers That Do This
Via: TPM:
In response to a deluge of news reports that employers, including public sector organizations, are increasingly forcing employees and prospective hires to turn over their Facebook login information (or have people login and allow supervisors to look at profiles), Facebook itself has decided to weigh-in on the matter.
On Friday, Facebook’s recently appointed chief privacy officer, Erin Egan, posted a note on the social network’s privacy page explaining that Facebook will “take action to protect the privacy and security of our users,” including suing employers who violate user privacy.
—End Update—
Via: Calgary Herald:
Job seeker Rob MacLeod says he was “taken aback” when an interviewer asked for his Facebook login and password so he could screen MacLeod’s photos as part of the job interview.
But privacy experts say asking for social media passwords is crossing the line of “reasonable” employment criteria, akin to asking out-of-bounds questions on age or ethnicity.
MacLeod said he questioned why this was necessary.
“He just pretty much became defensive himself saying ‘Oh, you know, if you have something to hide . . . we don’t have to go forward in this process,’ ” MacLeod told Postmedia News.
MacLeod, a 28-year-old Oakville, Ont., resident, said he offered to log the interviewer in, but he refused, asking to access MacLeod’s account directly.
“I have nothing to hide. (I said) ‘You can look at it. I just don’t like to disclose passwords,’ ” he recalled of the law enforcement position he applied for in 2009.
After the interviewer logged into MacLeod’s account, MacLeod said the interviewer came back and explained, “We just want to see some of the photos and see what people you are involved in.”
Meanwhile, privacy law experts worry about how the line between private and public life is being blurred in social media.
David Fraser, a Halifax-based privacy lawyer who runs the Canadian Privacy Law Blog, called this case “a completely unjustified invasion of privacy.”
