Your privacy – can an employer ask for your Facebook login and password?

What are your employment privacy rights?

I have become acutely aware that in this day and age you cannot expect any privacy once you walk out the front door of your house. Video and camera’s are everywhere and one just has to expect that your every move is being watch and scrutinized. It seems that not only is Big Brother keeping an eye on you, but so is corporate America and your neighbor. So when I read a news article entitled, “Can an employer ask for your Facebook login and password?” I was really not surprised. It seems that we are losing more and more of our civil liberties on a daily basis.

To recap the news article – Job seekers applying to Maryland’s Department of Corrections were asked for their Facebook logins and passwords. Agency officials state that they are doing this to make sure job candidates don’t have any gang affiliations. The agency states it has reviewed the social media accounts of 2,689 applicants and denied employment to seven because of items found on their pages. The agency had job candidates log in to their Facebook accounts while the hiring manager peered over their shoulder as they perused everything behind their privacy settings.

As you can guess the ACLU is all over this and after learning of this practice, has stepped in and put a stop to it.

I have always told our customers, employees, friends and family to be careful what they put into social media, it becomes a public record. You have to know that when you meet someone you are being searched, Googled and Binged. The information that is discovered about you is being scrutinized and decisions are being made about your character and worthiness.

Although – in the case of Maryland’s Department of Corrections I am completely shocked. Since when has it become OK for anyone or company to view past your privacy settings, whether they are online or personal settings. I wonder what’s next, wire tapping?

As an US company based in San Francisco California we do hire employees and we will perform a thorough background check and yes we will search for you on various online search engines and social media sites while doing our due diligence. After all – we want to make sure we are investing in the best candidate for the position as well as the company. But never would we ask for your logins and passwords.

Can a potential employer ask for such information? As it turns out, it depends on the policies the employer has in place and your State law. There are websites that can help in a general sense, but because laws vary from state to state it is hard to say what might be legal in one state could be illegal in another.

I am really curious about what you think about this? As you read this blog what pops into your mind?

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