Job interview? Fork over Facebook Password

[Seismosaurus]

I use no social media at all.

And frankly, I cannot understand why anyone would want to put their life on public display like that.

To me it seems perverse.

What exactly is "social media"? I participate in this forum, along with a couple of others. I spend time in chatrooms. Does that qualify as social media?

 

[crimresearch]

That's what I want to know too: what if? What additional harm does it do to you if your employer sees it?

None. But they don't need your password just to read your FB page.

The only thing a password gives them is the ability to go in and add or remove content.

 

[Weak Kitten]

It's the email password part that really upsets me. That's like asking someone for the key to their mail box. Especially with the amount of online banking and shopping that people do today. It's not unusual for a person to have credit card statements, bank statements and other identity based information in their email box. This is information that a police officer would need a warrant to acquire!

 

[Max_mang]

None. But they don't need your password just to read your FB page.

The only thing a password gives them is the ability to go in and add or remove content.

It also gives full access to your message history. Why should an employer be able read love letters to/from my gf and the heartfelt notes I received from family members when my father died? What right does anyone have to that info?

 

[NoahFence]

That's what I want to know too: what if? What additional harm does it do to you if your employer sees it?

If you give your employer your password and username, they can modify your facebook account.

This doesn't strike you as harmful?

 

[Indy418]

None. But they don't need your password just to read your FB page.

The only thing a password gives them is the ability to go in and add or remove content.

This was my problem with this. Your prospective employer could just go to Facebook and look up your name if they want to see what you're posting for your friends and family. What do they need your password for? Are they going to regulate what you post by changing it if they don't like what you post? Sorry, I'm an adult and I don't require or desire my boss to police what I post. Anyone is welcome to look me up on Facebook (though I have mine set to super private, so unless you're my friend/family, you can't see anything). Maybe that is why they want the password- they know some people want to keep what they share with their family and friend private, and the employer must know all your secrets (and desperately wants to see all the photos you post of your cat being adorable).

 

[kedo1981]

All the time I was growing up I was taught to be an loyal and ethical employee, I’d bet most of you were also.
But look how modern business is behaving, shipping jobs overseas to save a few percentage points, mass layoffs for the same reason, sitting on unprecedented profits but still not hiring perfectly qualified people, now crap like this.
Don’t give me that “they don’t owe anyone a job” crap, no one in a bread line is going to buy a Ipad.
Face it, corporations are totally disrespecting the very people that made them possible.
They need to reap what they sow.

 

[Piscivore]

Source?

My daughter did, to work at a small retailer selling baby related goods.

 

[Miss_Kitt]

kedo -- "Modern business" is not a fair grouping. Most businesses are not shipping jobs overseas or demanding people's Facebook passwords. To damn all companies because some are being jerks is as unfair as to damn all blondes because one took your lunch money... Your commitment to being an ethical employee, or for that matter, and ethical person, should not change because there are others who do not behave ethically.

Morality is not about how others perceive you, it's about how you see yourself. Your character is measured by how you act when nobody is looking.

I would not work for a firm that demanded my e-mail password or my Facebook information. That may limit which firms I work for, but I'm okay with that trade-off. I work in a field where I have access to private health information, so I am required by law to keep my mouth (and keyboard) shut about things I learn at work. I can foresee a circumstance where a company might check my Facebook / mySpace / Google+ identifier so they can verify I am not broadcasting info illegally; but that would not involve getting my PASSWORD, only that I give them my ID and possibly "friend" a company page--but even that would be something done once I am employed. Asking for a password is arguably not even legal.

As to "they don't have to give anyone a job" -- they don't! But they also should realize that by treating job prospects a certain way, they are screening out the very applicants they should want.

This is a case where the crime creates the punishment.


Not sure what the iPad reference was about; I don't have one.

 

[The Central Scrutinizer]

But look how modern business is behaving, shipping jobs overseas to save a few percentage points, mass layoffs for the same reason, sitting on unprecedented profits but still not hiring perfectly qualified people, now crap like this.

kedo -- "Modern business" is not a fair grouping. Most businesses are not shipping jobs overseas or demanding people's Facebook passwords. To damn all companies because some are being jerks is as unfair as to damn all blondes because one took your lunch money...

Corporations ship jobs overseas because we (as a society) want them to.

 

[Almo]

This was my problem with this. Your prospective employer could just go to Facebook and look up your name if they want to see what you're posting for your friends and family.

Not true if you have your profile set not to show stuff to people who are not your friends. This was what happened in the linked story. The employer couldn't see everything because he had some stuff set to friends-only.

 

[3point14]

kedo -- "Modern business" is not a fair grouping. Most businesses are not shipping jobs overseas or demanding people's Facebook passwords. To damn all companies because some are being jerks is as unfair as to damn all blondes because one took your lunch money... Your commitment to being an ethical employee, or for that matter, and ethical person, should not change because there are others who do not behave ethically. <SNipped>

The same applies both ways though.

 

[Max_mang]

Not true if you have your profile set not to show stuff to people who are not your friends. This was what happened in the linked story. The employer couldn't see everything because he had some stuff set to friends-only.

Information intended only for friends and family used to not be required by employers. Was this only because it wasn't as convenient as it is now? By this I mean: If, during the last 100 years or so, employers had an easy way to get info from you that was intended for your friends and family, they would have done it and people would have been ok with it?

 

[crimresearch]

Not true if you have your profile set not to show stuff to people who are not your friends. This was what happened in the linked story. The employer couldn't see everything because he had some stuff set to friends-only.

Which in no way requires that the prospective employer have the password.

 

[Alareth]

Which in no way requires that the prospective employer have the password.

The entire point in this is that potential employers are asking you to give them direct access to information you have chosen to keep private.

They have decided it's ok to dig into the personal details of your private life that you are not sharing with the public.

 

[Almo]

Which in no way requires that the prospective employer have the password.

From the article:

Bassett, a New York City statistician, had just finished answering a few character questions when the interviewer turned to her computer to search for his Facebook page. But she couldn't see his private profile. She turned back and asked him to hand over his login information.

This is why people are upset. The prospective employer is asking for the password so they can see things you've set to private or friends-only.

 

[Pulvinar]

The entire point in this is that potential employers are asking you to give them direct access to information you have chosen to keep private.

They have decided it's ok to dig into the personal details of your private life that you are not sharing with the public.

Whatever you have on Facebook, it's not private from them. As long as your employer doesn't make it public, they would be just one more company knowing it. So it's really a question of why keep it from one company and not another?

 

[crimresearch]

From the article:



This is why people are upset. The prospective employer is asking for the password so they can see things you've set to private or friends-only.

No, they are asking for the login and password, period.

If their legitimate goal was purely to investigate, then she could have turned to him and asked him to set the add/share information control.

There is no legitimate reason for a potential employer to need *user* access to anything.

 

[crimresearch]

Whatever you have on Facebook, it's not private from them. As long as your employer doesn't make it public, they would be just one more company knowing it. So it's really a question of why keep it from one company and not another?

So why not hand over your bank account information and PIN to a total stranger because they claim to have a job opening?

After all the bank already has it, and the prospective employer might only use it to check your financial history.

What could possibly be the harm?

 

[Tony]

It's the email password part that really upsets me. That's like asking someone for the key to their mail box. Especially with the amount of online banking and shopping that people do today. It's not unusual for a person to have credit card statements, bank statements and other identity based information in their email box. This is information that a police officer would need a warrant to acquire!

The "free market" is a backdoor way to create a totalitarian state.

Constitution forbids government from doing drugs tests? Have employers do it.

Constitution forbids government from denying access to contraception? Have employers do it.

Constitution forbids government from going through private email accounts and facebook profiles? Have employers do it.