Montana City Requires Workers' Internet Accounts 836
justinlindh writes "Bozeman, Montana is now requiring all applicants for city jobs to furnish Internet account information for 'background checking.' A portion of the application reads, "Please list any and all, current personal or business websites, web pages or memberships on any Internet-based chat rooms, social clubs or forums, to include, but not limited to: Facebook, Google, Yahoo, YouTube.com, MySpace, etc.' The article goes on to mention, 'There are then three lines where applicants can list the Web sites, their user names and log-in information and their passwords.'"
Real Opportunity (Score:5, Interesting)
1. Create Account with social site
2. Put name and password on app
3. Wait for it to be leaked and abused
4. Profit!
No need to get a job - this is like money in the bank.
wait, Bozeman Montana... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:WTF (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Unpopular (Score:3, Interesting)
So what if the employer is a Republican and you're a Democrat (or vice versa) and you've been participating in private Internet forums where you discuss political strategy? What if you've been communicating with your lawyer over a private Internet forum? What if you've been collaborating with partners on an invention you plan to patent over a private Internet forum. Does your prospective employer have a right to access all your private Internet communications? Why not just insist that all prospective employees put video cameras in every room of their house for a month before hiring?
If you have public accounts in your own name then they might be able to get away with this for those accounts. But if you use a fake name then I'd think you'd have some expectation of anonymity.
Re:City jobs are a bad thing? (Score:5, Interesting)
The police force does not protect you or your property, they apprehend and hold for trial those who stole/damaged your property. That doesn't do you any good. The damage is already done.
Write down my password? (Score:2, Interesting)
Heck, I'd have trouble *writing* some of my passwords. My really complex ones are purely by finger/type memory.
Re:City jobs are a bad thing? (Score:4, Interesting)
Do you have any data to back up your fire department efficiency anecdote?
The police force protects your property by their existence. Potential criminals know there will likely be consequences, and this deters crime.
Re:Broad brush strokes (Score:2, Interesting)
Seriously though, even I've hardly ever seen my password in plain text in front of me! It hurts my eyes.
Also, I don't even remember my randomly generated passwords - I use Firefox to fill them in them with a master password.
This is ridiculous
Re:City jobs are a bad thing? (Score:5, Interesting)
In every historical case, lack of collective action has lead to oppression of the working class by the owning class. What choices does a poor, non-owning class person actually have in a purely free market system? There are significant barriers to keep the poor from acquiring enough resources to become independent from the major resource holders. And as I mentioned, the labor market systematically undervalues labor. When all resources are owned, a non-owner has no way of being productive without an owner's consent. The owning class then owns the labor of that person. Slavery is the end result of anarcho-capitalism.
Re:WTF (Score:4, Interesting)
They might as well have asked for the keys to your house, the combination of your safe, and all your banking account info. They didn't do that because it is well understood that this is wrong. I bet the form and policy were made up by someone who's only exposure to social networking sites was over the shoulders of their kids. And this is probably where the idea of asking for passwords came from.
Kurt
Re:Real Opportunity (Score:3, Interesting)
Profit!
Re:Passwords? (Score:3, Interesting)
Not only would the applicants be breaking the terms of service but the City of Bozeman would be guilty of all the "Unlawful Access of a Computer" laws we have all over the place. Since most of these online sites are hosted somewhere outside of Montana they would be guilty on a Federal level. The City of Bozeman should be prepared for all the lawsuits they're about to receive.
Re:Passwords? (Score:2, Interesting)
WOW that's a troll? Most of the stuff on bash.org is insanely contrived. Is the hunter2 conversation contrived? Yeah I'd say so... I think it's funny, but yeah it's pretty contrived. Not nearly half as contrived as most of the stuff on bash.org.
Re:WTF (Score:3, Interesting)
If they REQUIRE that information, then the answer becomes "Go screw."
Re:City jobs are a bad thing? (Score:3, Interesting)
Very true. Isn't it great, therefore, that we have so many other choices?
Those choices are given to you by a controlled, regulated market.
It depends on the availability of resources, of course. However, in any capitalist market "non-owners" have the opportunity to acquire resources, thereby creating new choices. The only ones who seem to have a problem with that are those who are unable or unwilling to be productive.
For certain values of 'capitalist market', i.e. ones which have enough regulations to keep cartels, monopolies and other protection rackets restrained, this holds roughly true. That's why we have the social contract called government which so many affect to despise while they live under its wing.
In a completely free unregulated capitalist market, the man who starts with the biggest stick wins, until someone even more brutal comes along. See Somalia.
Re:WTF (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:WTF (Score:3, Interesting)