Job interview? Fork over Facebook Password

Pulvinar said:
You don't think a criminal background check would be intrusive?

You would already have to trust the people at Facebook (presumedly all strangers to you) with everything you put there. They don't need your password to see it. Why aren't people here up in arms about that in the first place?
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And that's the heart of your posts in this topic. You think FB is bad because people are putting personal info on the internet with their name attached to it, so you're now portraying this as people getting what they deserve.
 
Pulvinar said:
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?
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Pulvinar said:
You don't think a criminal background check would be intrusive?

You would already have to trust the people at Facebook (presumedly all strangers to you) with everything you put there. They don't need your password to see it. Why aren't people here up in arms about that in the first place?
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You don't seem to understand that if they have your password they see things that the public would not. You know like private messages that were supposed to be between two people. Messages about things like how dates went or who they have a crush on.

That is something that no employer needs to know. It is not their business that your friend thinks the new receptionist at the tire center is smoking hot.
 
Seismosaurus said:
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?
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It's a loose term.

I don't consider this forum, or forums like it, to be "social media" because by and large we are anonymous here, and the focal point is not to share our personal lives with one another.

But Facebook and Twitter and FourSquare are all about that. In fact, Facebook will kick you out for using a fake name. (At least, that's their policy... I doubt they've got a name squad, tho.)
 
Travis said:
You don't seem to understand that if they have your password they see things that the public would not. You know like private messages that were supposed to be between two people. Messages about things like how dates went or who they have a crush on.

That is something that no employer needs to know. It is not their business that your friend thinks the new receptionist at the tire center is smoking hot.
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...couple that with the fact that this "prospective employer" can now modify someone's personal information and it's just flat out-of-line. It's absurd to even ask for such information.
 
Halfcentaur said:
And that's the heart of your posts in this topic. You think FB is bad because people are putting personal info on the internet with their name attached to it, so you're now portraying this as people getting what they deserve.
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No, I don't think Facebook is bad. I'm trying to understand why others here think that some other company who may be their employer might be any less trustworthy with their "private" information than Facebook.
 
Travis said:
You don't seem to understand that if they have your password they see things that the public would not. You know like private messages that were supposed to be between two people. Messages about things like how dates went or who they have a crush on.

That is something that no employer needs to know. It is not their business that your friend thinks the new receptionist at the tire center is smoking hot.
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I completely understand that your prospective employer could do bad things once they have your password. But so could someone at Facebook! Why trust the people at one company over the other?

If you were applying for a job at Facebook would this not be a problem?
 
Seismosaurus said:
Said it before : I am only vaguely aware of what facebook is, but the more I hear about it, the more glad I am that I have nothing to do with it.
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What I find baffling is that their own web site doesn't even try to explain what you're signing up for. It's the biggest pig-in-a-poke-poke-poke hustle I've ever seen.
 
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There could be room for this in a company's structure, but it would need to be offset by something offered in return.

For example, the wives of senior managers and major shareholders coming in every Friday lunchtime to **** off the male employees.
 
Pulvinar said:
No, I don't think Facebook is bad. I'm trying to understand why others here think that some other company who may be their employer might be any less trustworthy with their "private" information than Facebook.
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The fundamental difference is that to Facebook I'm one of millions of users. They have zero interest in what I do on the weekends because they don't know me. They might (I don't post much of anything myself) have the information but it might as well be anonymous.

It would be like someone you don't know misdialing your phone number and leaving a highly personal voicemail because they think you're someone else. You don't know this person and you're unlikely to ever see them, let alone meet them. You have this information but there's no context to it, so it's no big deal to the caller that you know these personal things.

To your company, and certainly to your immediate coworkers, supervisors, and HR people, you're not anonymous at all. When these people have private information about you, they can offer it up to other people you know; their opinion of you can be colored and they can treat you differently, perhaps even deny you the opportunity for advancement. And that's all if you actually get the job; if you're out of work and trying to get a job, the prospective employer has that much more power over your life, especially if you've been out of work for an extended period of time.
 
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If you hand over your password, not only are you revealing yourself, you are putting at risk private messages from others. My profession--law--takes confidences seriously. I would assume in a law related interview than anyone who handed over the password had failed the test.
 
Visual Purple said:
If you hand over your password, not only are you revealing yourself, you are putting at risk private messages from others. My profession--law--takes confidences seriously. I would assume in a law related interview than anyone who handed over the password had failed the test.
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The same goes for every profession. If you were to surrender your FB password so easily, I'd have to assume it wouldn't take much to convince you to give up your work email password, VPN credentials, intranet login, server passwords, etc. if someone just asked nicely enough.
 
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Pulvinar said:
I completely understand that your prospective employer could do bad things once they have your password. But so could someone at Facebook! Why trust the people at one company over the other.
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Your employer could do bad things if they got your bank account details. But so could someone at the bank! Why trust the people at one company over the other?

You never gave a proper answer last time I brought this up, but is this argument somehow magically limited to Facebook, or does it apply to the phone company, library, bank, video store, etc, as well?
 
There are a number of questions (In the US) which it is illegal for a prospective employer to ask:
What race are you?
How tall are you?
When did you graduate college?
What church do you belong to (or even what religion are you?)
Are you married? Pregnant? Expect to have children? Do you have kids?
How much do you weigh?--a whole host of illegal questions, but if they can get into your facebook account, they can have answers, without asking the questions...
 
If a potential employers want me to give them my FB password, or piss in a cup, I'm passing on the job. Over zealous HR departments really screw up a lot of good companies. I think it's important for the executive staff to keep a close eye on the experience of all the employees (and potential employees) with respect to dealing with garbage like this.

On top of that nobody should be asking for anyone password for anything.
 
rwguinn said:
There are a number of questions (In the US) which it is illegal for a prospective employer to ask:
What race are you?
How tall are you?
When did you graduate college?
What church do you belong to (or even what religion are you?)
Are you married? Pregnant? Expect to have children? Do you have kids?
How much do you weigh?--a whole host of illegal questions, but if they can get into your facebook account, they can have answers, without asking the questions...
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Urban myths. Employers can and do ask those questions all the time, with the exception of the religious and pregnancy ones.
 
crimresearch said:
Urban myths. Employers can and do ask those questions all the time, with the exception of the religious and pregnancy ones.
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Wrong again. Or if you're correct, it is a very wide-spread myth:
http://www.uwec.edu/career/online_library/illegal_ques.htm
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8963-2003Apr11.html
http://www.gsworkplace.lbl.gov/Docu.../IllegalorInappropriateInterviewQuestions.pdf
http://www.pacificu.edu/offices/hr/training/interview/pdfs/LegalOrIllegalInterviewQuestions.pdf
I think a couple of universities, and few legal case citations, The Washington Post, and other reputable sites may actually know better than a random poster with an apparent chip on his shoulder...
 
Ryokan said:
Your employer could do bad things if they got your bank account details. But so could someone at the bank! Why trust the people at one company over the other?

You never gave a proper answer last time I brought this up, but is this argument somehow magically limited to Facebook, or does it apply to the phone company, library, bank, video store, etc, as well?
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That question has been answered.

The difference is that in order for the bank to perform the services you have asked them to, the bank needs to have enough information to accept and process your money.

No employer has any valid need to go into your bank account or anything else with a user password. They have no business taking out your money, they have no business uploading anything into your Facebook page, they have no business sending out emails under your name.

If they ever did need to have such access *after* they hire you, then they can create a PFA or the equivalent work related account.

If all they *need* for employment screening is information, then they can look at it hands off... if you so choose.

Apples and oranges to the nth degree.
 
crimresearch said:
That question has been answered.

The difference is that in order for the bank to perform the services you have asked them to, the bank needs to have enough information to accept and process your money.

No employer has any valid need to go into your bank account or anything else with a user password. They have no business taking out your money, they have no business uploading anything into your Facebook page, they have no business sending out emails under your name.
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Yes.

However, I was asking Pulvinar, since he's the one arguing for handing over any information asked for to your employer, since it would be hypocritical to trust one company over another, or something like that. He's the one I was hoping would answer the question and justify his position, not someone who agreed that employers have no business asking for such private and confidential information.
 
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