Facebook: Legal Action Against Employers Asking For Your Password 504
An anonymous reader writes "Facebook today weighed in on the issue of employers asking current and prospective employees for their Facebook passwords. The company noted that doing so undermines the privacy expectations and the security of both the user and the user's friends, as well as potentially exposes the employer to legal liability. The company is looking to draft new laws as well as take legal action against employers who do this."
A least one U.S. Senator agrees with them.
Re:wait... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:But now... (Score:5, Informative)
And a company has the ability to say, "hey we don't want to hire you." As the article states you could sue for discrimination. But in this economy that has as about as much chance as snowball in hell. IMO the reality is that with social networks whether or not it is "private" you are putting information out that could get in the wrong person's hands.
Since the beginning of the web (I started developing websites around the beginning of 95) I have been ever careful of what I put out... The key is to make it look "real", but not enough to make you look bad.
Re:Ever actually happened? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Ever actually happened? (Score:3, Informative)
Has a single company that has done this been identified by name? Every article I've seen does NOT mention any name, making it sound more anecdotal than factual.
maryland department of corrections was screening guards this way. Looking for gang signs. West Coooast! *does the twisted finger thing* http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/22/aclu-facebook-password_n_1372242.html [huffingtonpost.com].
Re:You need a new law for this? (Score:3, Informative)
except in the UK where they ask your religion, your sexual preference, your race etc.
True, but it always says "you do not have to supply this information" then something about not doing so won't affect your likelihood of getting a job but that they hope you will because it helps them monitor their diversity.
Re:So I've never had any social media account (Score:4, Informative)
Says Mr. 6534 /. account. Bad news for you: This is social media, too.
And in case you didn't look, there's the option to put all sorts of crud in your profile, plus non-blocked people can scan every comment you ever posted.
Re:i would love to sue my boss for that (Score:5, Informative)
My company's Info Security rules actively prohibit password sharing. My employer obviously wants a clear audit trail for any given action, because they want to know who to blame for fraud, monumental cock-ups, etc.
I didn't realise there were large companies that didn't do this. It seems like common sense.
Re:But now... (Score:4, Informative)
Plenty of fertile ground for lawsuits.
If you can find a lawyer willing to take the case, of course. From my own experiences dealing with discrimination as an employee of a major corporation, I couldn't find any lawyers in my area willing to take the case because it would have been ridiculously expensive to bring to trial, not because my case didn't necessarily have merit (although I admit it would have been a difficult case, as much of the discrimination was in the form of verbal comments and bias in terms of scheduling and double-standards, still, there were numerous witnesses and others that were discriminated against to varying degrees).
Not to say that there aren't frivolous discrimination lawsuits, but the mere size and resources of the defendant has a definite chilling effect on those cases being brought.
Re:But now... (Score:2, Informative)
Another alternative is "don't have a facebook account".