Employer Facebook Password Requests Suspended 209
Hugh Pickens writes "The Washington Post reports that Maryland's Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services has suspended a roughly year-old practice of asking prospective employees to voluntarily divulge their user names and passwords to social media Web sites such as Facebook. In a statement, the department said requests for user names and passwords had been voluntary, and had not been taken into account when evaluating job applicants. Nonetheless, 'in light of these concerns raised by the ACLU and because this is a newly emerging area in the law, the department has suspended the process of asking for social media information for 45 days to review the procedure and to make sure it is being used consistently and appropriately.'" We covered this story back when the ACLU took the case.
Sure! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Why need the password (Score:5, Insightful)
Only friends and advertisers that facebook sell you to. Remember, at facebook, your information is the product.
Bullshit statement (do they think we're stupid?) (Score:5, Insightful)
If their statement is true then this raises even more serious questions about what this information was used for. If it was a lie then we need to ask why they feel they need to lie about this program (hint: it is illegal either way).
Re:Flashlight under a rock (Score:5, Insightful)
It is unfortunate, but a lot of the worst abuses of the rights and freedoms that Americans are supposed to have are widely supported by the people themselves. Try telling someone that the War on Drugs may not be constitutional, or that too many people are in jail, or that prison sentences are too long, or that the police have too much power, or that there are just too many laws, and see the sort of reaction that you will get; with the exception of my libertarian friends (I am not a libertarian), I am almost exclusively met with expressions shock when I make any such statements. The concept of a society in which our freedoms are not curtailed further with each passing year seems to make people uncomfortable; that is why the government gets away with it.
Re:Bullshit statement (do they think we're stupid? (Score:5, Insightful)
do they think we're stupid?
They don't think you are stupid. They think the people they're hiring are stupid and have a passion for yielding/wielding command as part of a hierarchy with no regard to the consequences of their actions.
Considering they're hiring prison guards, that's a fair assumption.
Re:A better policy.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Those clauses only apply if you are a facebook user. Anyone who is not a facebook user is more than welcome to solicit all the login information they want. Just make sure your hiring board are all non-facebookers. Heck, make sure your entire company is non-facebookers. If the response to the facebook login info request is anything but "the requested information does not exist" then the potential hire is a no-go. It's a self-reinforcing process!
Re:Oh, it was Voluntary! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:A better policy.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Here is how I would implement a policy like that. I would ask, all applicants for their facebook username and password up front.
Then, everyone who gave it to me, would get a polite letter informing them that they did not get the job because they so easily violated the TOS of facebook, with whom they had a standing agreement before they applied with us. Thus, there is no way that we could trust them with access credentials on our system.
You failed the test, you are the weakest link, goodbye.
And anyone who passed the test, by refusing to divulge such information, should immediately turn down any job offer you give them.
No one with a brain would work for a company that dicks them around with "tests" like that.
They get enough of those mind games from their girlfriends.
Re:Nice Excuse (Score:1, Insightful)
The people doing this were bureaucrats in a department of a small state. If they are the ruling class, so is half of everybody else.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Flashlight under a rock (Score:5, Insightful)
"The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter."
A little love for the ACLU? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Flashlight under a rock (Score:3, Insightful)
You say "they" as if the people who run the government are an entirely different species than everyone else. In the USA, "they" derive their power from the consent (albeit a rather apathetic consent) of the people "they" govern.
I apologize in advance for being that guy that invokes Godwin's Law [wikipedia.org], but I think that the same result of governance-through-apathy could be shown to be a major part of most [wikipedia.org] antagonists [wikipedia.org] of human rights. [wikipedia.org]
I just wanted to point this out in the defense of other Americans like the OP, to show that it's nothing the Americans have done differently or worse - in fact I might argue that it's human nature. It doesn't detract from your point at all, I completely agree with you - but it's unrealistic at this point in history to be surprised by the apathy of the majority of any group of peoples.
Re:A better policy.... (Score:5, Insightful)
You know how when there's a problem with your car, any part of it, that engine light comes on? And then you can't figure out what the hell is really wrong, because all you got is the engine light? And then you start second guessing every little noise or bump, in your rush to get it to a garage to get it resolved, only to find out three hours later and $500, that a screw was loose?
That's a mind game.
Re:Flashlight under a rock (Score:4, Insightful)
"Democracy is the worst possible political system. Except for all the others."
Re:Flashlight under a rock (Score:4, Insightful)
The U.S. is a Representative Democracy -- a type of democracy -- and a Republic -- a nation whose leader is not a hereditary monarch. These are two orthogonal properties of nations.
We are not a Direct Democracy, which is what people saying "the U.S. isn't a Democracy" usually mean. But we are assuredly a Democracy. And the same comments, issued by Winston Churchill (who was in part describing his own country, which is a Representative Democracy as well), apply.
A Representative Democracy is four wolves and a sheep voting on who is going to decide what's for dinner. :)