New Illinois Law Protecting Social Media Rights In the Workplace

sl4shd0rk writes "Illinois (USA) Governor Pat Quinn signed a new law this week protecting employees' privacy rights concerning social media. Bill 3782 makes it illegal for an employer to request an employee's or job candidate's social network login credentials, in order to gain access to their account or profile. 'Members of the workforce should not be punished for information their employers don't legally have the right to have,' Governor Quinn said. 'As use of social media continues to expand, this new law will protect workers and their right to personal privacy.'"

Is This For Real?

[crow_t_robot]

What are these jobs that make you surrender your personal login credentials? Is this really happening? How would this ever be considered acceptable practice?

Definition

[Cajun Hell]

(4) For the purposes of this subsection, "social networking website" means an Internet-based service that allows individuals to:

1. (A) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, created by the service;
2. (B) create a list of other users with whom they share a connection within the system; and
3. (C) view and navigate their list of connections and those made by others within the system.

"Social networking website" shall not include electronic mail.

Great, now I have to look up the definition of electronic mail. Is it going to be things which talk rfc822? Or it is going to be things which transmit messages between different users? (I just checked Facebook and it has some kind of messaging thing in it; would be hilarious if Facebook didn't qualify.)

I bet most sites which use logins, could be made to become social networking. Even banks, if you get creative.

I hate laws like this, which are so needlessly specific to handle ephemeral trends. Why didn't they just make it illegal to impersonate other people? Who profited by lobbying against that?