Category: Jobs and Employment
I wasn't exactly sure where to post this, so I went with the jobs board, since it relates to employment. The following article was sent to an email list I'm subscribed to.
..SEATTLE (AP) — When Justin Bassett interviewed for a new job, he expected the usual questions about experience and references. So he was astonished when the interviewer asked for something else: his Facebook username and password.
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.
Bassett refused and withdrew his application, saying he didn't want to work for a company that would seek such personal information. But as the job market steadily improves, other job candidates are confronting the same question from prospective employers, and some of them cannot afford to say no.
In their efforts to vet applicants, some companies and government agencies are going beyond merely glancing at a person's social networking profiles and instead asking to log in as the user to have a look around.
"It's akin to requiring someone's house keys," said Orin Kerr, a George Washington University law professor and former federal prosecutor who calls it "an egregious privacy violation."
Questions have been raised about the legality of the practice, which is also the focus of proposed legislation in Illinois and Maryland that would forbid public agencies from asking for access to social networks.
Since the rise of social networking, it has become common for managers to review publically available Facebook profiles, Twitter accounts and other sites to learn more about job candidates. But many users, especially on Facebook, have their profiles set to private, making them available only to selected people or certain networks.
Companies that don't ask for passwords have taken other steps — such as asking applicants to friend human resource managers or to log in to a company computer during an interview. Once employed, some workers have been required to sign non-disparagement agreements that ban them from talking negatively about an employer on social media.
Asking for a candidate's password is more prevalent among public agencies, especially those seeking to fill law enforcement positions such as police officers or 911 dispatchers.
Back in 2010, Robert Collins was returning to his job as a security guard at the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services after taking a leave following his mother's death. During a reinstatement interview, he was asked for his login and password, purportedly so the agency could check for any gang affiliations. He was stunned by the request but complied.
"I needed my job to feed my family. I had to," he recalled,
After the ACLU complained about the practice, the agency amended its policy, asking instead for job applicants to log in during interviews.
"To me, that's still invasive. I can appreciate the desire to learn more about the applicant, but it's still a violation of people's personal privacy," said Collins, whose case inspired Maryland's legislation.
Until last year, the city of Bozeman, Mont., had a long-standing policy of asking job applicants for passwords to their email addresses, social-networking websites and other online accounts.
And since 2006, the McLean County, Ill., sheriff's office has been one of several Illinois sheriff's departments that ask applicants to sign into social media sites to be screened.
Chief Deputy Rusty Thomas defended the practice, saying applicants have a right to refuse. But no one has ever done so. Thomas said that "speaks well of the people we have apply."
When asked what sort of material would jeopardize job prospects, Thomas said "it depends on the situation" but could include "inappropriate pictures or relationships with people who are underage, illegal behavior."
In Spotsylvania County, Va., the sheriff's department asks applicants to friend background investigators for jobs at the 911 dispatch center and for law enforcement positions.
"In the past, we've talked to friends and neighbors, but a lot of times we found that applicants interact more through social media sites than they do with real friends," said Capt. Mike Harvey. "Their virtual friends will know more about them than a person living 30 yards away from them."
Harvey said investigators look for any "derogatory" behavior that could damage the agency's reputation.
E. Chandlee Bryan, a career coach and co-author of the book "The Twitter Job Search Guide," said job seekers should always be aware of what's on their social media sites and assume someone is going to look at it.
Bryan said she is troubled by companies asking for logins, but she feels it's not a violation if an employer asks to see a Facebook profile through a friend request. And she's not troubled by non-disparagement agreements.
"I think that when you work for a company, they are essentially supporting you in exchange for your work. I think if you're dissatisfied, you should go to them and not on a social media site," she said.
More companies are also using third-party applications to scour Facebook profiles, Bryan said. One app called BeKnown can sometimes access personal profiles, short of wall messages, if a job seeker allows it.
Sears is one of the companies using apps. An applicant has the option of logging into the Sears job site through Facebook by allowing a third-party application to draw information from the profile, such as friend lists.
Sears Holdings Inc. spokeswoman Kim Freely said using a Facebook profile to apply allows Sears to be updated on the applicant's work history.
The company assumes "that people keep their social profiles updated to the minute, which allows us to consider them for other jobs in the future or for ones that they may not realize are available currently," she said.
Giving out Facebook login information violates the social network's terms of service. But those terms have no real legal weight, and experts say the legality of asking for such information remains murky.
The Department of Justice regards it as a federal crime to enter a social networking site in violation of the terms of service, but during recent congressional testimony, the agency said such violations would not be prosecuted.
But Lori Andrews, law professor at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law specializing in Internet privacy, is concerned about the pressure placed on applicants, even if they voluntarily provide access to social sites.
"Volunteering is coercion if you need a job," Andrews said.
Neither Facebook nor Twitter responded to repeated requests for comment.
In New York, Bassett considered himself lucky that he was able to turn down the consulting gig at a lobbying firm.
"I think asking for account login credentials is regressive," he said. "If you need to put food on the table for your three kids, you can't afford to stand up for your belief."
This issue does present some shades of gray. Oh yes, it is quite disturbing, to say the least, but if you're in a position where you've been out of work for years, or perhaps you've never had a job before, sometimes desperate times call for desperate measures. Even though my facebook profile is private, I don't go on there much. hence, there's not much a potential employer could find out about me from that anyway. In a way, I can understand the employers wanting to look at the basic information, statuses and wall posts, and I'll gladly show them that, but I'm not letting them into a situation where they could look at my private messages, or to where they could potentially change my information. Not because I have something to hide, rather, if Joe Blow off the street has no right to my information, why should you? And for those of you who are going to say; "Well, because this is your potential employer", how do you know that Joe Blow off the street couldn't be my employer next week, or next year? that doesn't mean I'm going to show him my private social networking. If the employer wants to be that involved, I question the work they'll want me to do anyway, and/or the way they handle their employees.
I'm not the type to hide things either, and my profile and posts are available to all. But I also don't use my legal name, both because I would never use my last name on the internet, except when buying something, and because I wish to change my first and last name to what it is there. That said, access to my personal controls on Facebook, or on any other site, is my own, unless I choose, willingly, to give them to someone or to a particular group. It would be different if we had another revolution, like 21 April, 1967, but since I'm not currently in Ellada, I doubt the Hellenic Military would ask for it, and since I can't work for them now, they wouldn't need it as my employer either. *smile*
What really got me was that there was mention of places where people would ask you for the password to your email account. Wtf? It was kind of overshadowed by all the Facebook talk, but I definitely did see that in the article. That's even worse than this Facebook stuff, in my opinion.
I don't have anything to hide either. But to me, that's not the concept of it. The thing is, especially as a blind person, how would I know if the employer isn't writing down my information so he can use it later to hack into my account? That said, I deactivated my Facebook account several months ago, mostly because I never posted to it anyway, but now I'm really glad I did. Now I can be honest when I say, no, I don't have a Facebook account. I probably would have said that anyway.
Yeah, I don't like the idea of giving my password to anybody. I don't have anything to hide on my FB profile but still, I'm not going to give out a password.
I concur with the password issue. there's no reason what-so-ever that an employer needs my personal login information. I haven't anything to hide either, but this encroaches on personal identity. I can understand be"friending" a potential employer, because there are times when Facebook activity might actually be helpful for them to see, and so they can get a better sense of who you are. The other side of that however is how you act in an unprofessional setting isn't necessarily how you'll act professionally. But the other side to that too is our personal conduct does say something about who we are. If all you ever post about is who you met and screwed at the bar, or how much weed you've smoked last weekend, that doesn't exactly inspire confidence. It's definately a gray area, but I must restate that in very few circmstances should anybody who isn't you have access to your login information.
Two things:
I am most concerned because people who are financially strapped and feel they have no other options will give up this info rather than go hungry or have their kids go hungry.
One question for these employers / interviewers:
Who do you think you are? I have been cleared by the Department of Homeland Security, as one of my activities makes me a part of that. They didn't ask for passwords, and they took prints and did a rather thorough background check on me. So, basically, who asked you?
What kind of employer is going to ask a user to compromise the terms of service they agreed to with another company? When anyone signs up for Facebook, they agree not to give the password or other identifying info to other people.
I'm glad to see Facebook is going to take legal action against these people.
Again, what self-righteous pompous public institution-based recruiter is so high above the rest of us that she or he can ask for info that the Department of Homeland Security, and the FBI, do not ask for? Enough said.
Lawyered!
I completely agree: background checks should provide employers with all the information they need. Prospective employees should not be asked to give their interviewers the passwords to Facebook or any other accounts; that's an invasion of privacy. Like F&R, I deactivated my Facebook account, partly because I hardly ever updated it. I don't have anything to hide either, but now I'm doubly glad I got rid of it.
I agree with Leo. I'm sort of strapped for cash most months due to unemployment (although I did get a job offer from a friend of mine a month or so back). But I would not, under any circumstances, give a potential employer my passwords to my Facebook or Email. I'd sooner continue to go hungry than do that. Yeah all they would find on Facebook are my posts about craving cinnamon rolls or toaster strudels at ungodly hours of the day and night, but still. I would perhaps friend an employer after I'd been hired and was working there for a while, since a usiness might use Facebook as one more means of getting news out about upcoming events. But if they feel they have to see my Facebook in order to decide if I'm worthy of being hired then obviously it's not the job for me.
Another thing I thought about when reading this article was the fact that discrimination could occur if an employer looked at your profile. Suppose you're gay, and your employer is one of those prejudiced people who doesn't like gays. Sure, you might not be able to prove either way that that's why you didn't get the job, but it could definitely occur. Religious differences could also play a part. If you're a Muslim, for example, your potential employer might be weary of you if they're closed-minded. But if you just walked into the job interview, and didn't conduct yourself in such a way that these things would be noticed, just acted professional as you should in an interview, that employer is more likely to hire you, as sad as that is that prejudices do play such a big role in people's minds. Just look at the unemployment rate for the disabled to draw that conclusion.
Very true. I do not have a facebook profile, and that is by choice. I would have no problem if an employer chose to view information I myself made public, but I would never EVER allow an employer to have a password to my email or my bank acocunt, so why would I allow them access to FB?
I used to have a friend who I discussed this article with several months ago. While we were talking about it, he said that by deleting my Facebook profile, employers would actually think I had something to hide. I still don't understand the logic behind that. First of all, how would they know whether I had ever had a Facebook account? Second, since when does connecting to a social network prove one's trustworthiness? It may be "normal" or even trendy to have a Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, myspace, and every other social network profile, but I'm not exactly sure how not buying into it makes me shady.
You can't completely delete a facebook account. there are ways of finding it even when a user opts to remove his profile and close his account. Perhaps that's what your friend meant by saying that. In that case, it makes his or her argument more valid.
What are they gonna ask for next, my social security number? Lol.
Actually, they already do ask for your social security number, ryan. Don't you know that that's required for them to have on record for tax purposes? Even companies that you work for as an independent contractor require you to fill out a w2 form or something similar, one of the fill-in spots being your social security number. it's not illegal for a ligitimit employer to ask for your social security number for exactly the purposes I just described. Of course, it's not illegal for you to refuse them that information, but that means you dont' get paid. so it's kind of moot for anyone to argue with "you can't have my ssn". I'm surprised this isn't common knowledge.
If you're that worried about someone finding your facebook account, put a fake name, a fake city and use a email account that you set up specifically for facebook. I have lots of friends who do that and only add people they know.
asking for passwords to fb, twitter, email and so on is just plain wrong! No as others have said if a potential employer wanted to friend me on facebook or follow me on twitter that would be fine. I don't post to facebook much anymore and although I do tweet a lot, I doubt anything I tweet would be considered inappropriate and my account is public anyway. But providing passwords of any kind to anyone... absolutely not.
Oh yeah and like someone else said, you can delete an fb account or any other account but nothing posted on the internet is ever truly erased. In fact I think I read somewhere that there are companies who specialize in retrieving information from deleted accounts on the internet.
This is extremely disturbing.
I've hear of potential employers having a look on FB but n ot asking for their username and password; I think I'd also withdraw my application to be honest.
I'm like Silver. I have everything to hide, and getting a job should not mean I need to produce my house keys so to speak.
Do a background check, sure, but if I'm ask for my Facebook or email, well, I don't have one. Next my email address if I get bad enough can be changed easy.
Hiding or not hiding is not the point. The point is everyone, in America is promised rights to privacy. Lets fight for it!
You shouldn't lie about having an account, though. They ask you, which means you can say yes or no. Even if they said, "give me your facebook password", they wouldn't get it for me, but I'd be happy to friend them on facebook to prove there's nothing I am ashamed to show, and then unfriend them a few days later. Simple as that.
As far as the social security number goes, I did not know. I applied for work previously, and though I wasn't accepted anywhere, I was never asked for my SSN by employers. If I applied at places such as MacDonald's, Subway, or any other fast food chains, I see no reason for them to need it. However, when I finish college, and I go for my career of choice, I can understand why they'd ask. Maybe there is a law that prohibits that info being given to any employer, and there's just something else I didn't know.
I can lie about having a FaceBook account. Smile.
Prove it!
Ah, ok. I hadn't thought that the rationale behind what my friend said was that anything can be recovered on the internet, but that does make sense. Still, even though deactivating your Facebook account doesn't erase it, I heard that you can contact Facebook if you want it to be permanently gone and they'll do that for you. is it true, and would they even be trustworthy enough to do so?
My mom told me today that she heard that Facebook can now give your personal information to anyone they want, because there was a setting that people could change to prevent this, but less than 30% of Facebook users made the proper adjustments. Having been out of the Facebook loop since right before I originally made this post, I have no idea what settings they were, or how much truth there is to this, since my mom doesn't use Facebook, and hardly ever goes on the computer at all, really. But if that's true, I'd say that's even scarier. Then an employer could simply contact the Facebook team and ask them to hand over your password, and they would, simply because most people were too stupid to care whether or not their privacy would be compromised.
Ryan, regardless of whether you work for McDonalds or the most prestigious law office, you have to fill out your tax forms, and therefore you have to fill in your SSN. I don't understand why you think a prospective subway employee should not have to give out his SSN but a person with a highe paying job should do so. A job is a job, whether your sallary is 300 thousand a year or 30 thousand. You still need to pay taxes regardless of where you work.
It's a little naive of you to think otherwise. Think about this: what if all a person can aspire to professionally is a job at Subway? Then he shouldn't have to giveout his SSN and therefore never file taxes in the same way as everyone else? Remember, just because you might feel that a job is beneath you or not up to your standards doesn't mean that it's any less of a job than one you might consider for yourself.
And about facebook, that's a load of crap about them selling people's information to anyone and everyone. There was a hoax recently on facebook that prompted everyone to post to their wall that they don't relinquish their written work or photos to anyone else and that it's copyrighted. That was it though. it was just a joke. Only a third of the facebook population fell for it and posted it to their wall. it was the same thing as when facebook was supposedly going to charge people for using it. People believe any and everything they hear. The truth is, though, that Facebook is now a publicly shared company, which means that the public is allowed to buy stock in it. With that said, given how many patrons facebook has globally, if they were to do something as shady as that, there would be a major public outcry and facebook would lose a lot of its funding, including a handful of advertisers, I'm sure. So no, it's not true.
I have a stand on I trust.
"never post, or say, or put anything on a public network, place or source you don't want learned." That is why I don't have a FaceBook I keep anyway.
A friend did get one for me due to music and that sort of thing, but I have been thinking about closing even that down, because I never ever post to it.
Nothing wrong with FaceBook, but I really think people should think twice before the post things. Even your trusted friends can betray you, and how many of your trusted friends on FaceBook do you really know?
It is bad enough that much of your private information you have shared with say your doctor can be gotten if someone knows how to get it or can what I call social engineer a source in to giving it up.
Again, I have everything to hide no matter if it is worth hiding or not. My privacy is extremely important to me, and even if I get naked and run around my house in green paint on my off time, as long as I don't come to work in green paint naked, and do my job there professionally, and effectively, my off time should be my own.
If I do something against the law on my off time that is for the law enforcement people to deal with.
Its hard enough getting a job without having to put your soul on your application, and I really think we should fight for the right to privacy.
Suppose you posted a picture of your lover, and the person hiring you always wanted say an Asian woman, and sees you have exactly what he's always wanted. Or maybe you have applied for a job that doesn't pay much, but on your FaceBook page you are leaning on your brand new Mercedes Benzbecause you've got other sources of money and want the job to add to it, but the person hiring you decides you've got enough money already? Maybe that Benz was a gift, and you really need the job.
Lets fight!
This article and its comments highlight a few misunderstandings about the internet, and some corrections, so I'm going to try and sum it up:
1) Anything you post on the internet has the potential to be traced back to you and used against you. Anything, anywhere, ever. If you were online at the age of 11 and made some snarky racist comment on a newspaper site, it's still archived out there somewhere. That includes this site here.
2) Facebook does not owe you anything, especially not your privacy. It's a company that has always been out to make a profit, as all companies do. It will use any data you give it, including links you surreptitiously click on, to enhance its advertisement targeting. The Terms of Service and Privacy Policy make this all pretty clear. If you have signed up for the site, you have given your implicit agreement, and turned over your information in the name of socialization and convenience.
3) If you're using your real name on Facebook, be aware that even if they don't demand the information from you, you're vulnerable. Your coworkers, superiors, inferiors, and customers all have the potential to find you and your history of posts, whether public or private. Any coworker you befriend is an increased chance of liability for your unprofessional or unflattering moments to become job-related knowledge.
Like I said, I've never worked before, so as far as that goes I've still got things to learn. I've never been responsible for taxes before, so thanks for informing me that that is the purpose.
Wayne, that was a point I forgot to bring up before. Why the hell don't people think of what they're posting? I have a cousin who posts where he is all the time. Hopefully, nobody who is looking for trouble is watching his posts. However, I don't see a point of getting worried about people seeing what you post, if you're being responsible and careful about what you are posting. When it comes to the Internet and big social sites like FaceBook, people should realize from the get go, it can always be traced. No matter how protected the site may be, and no matter how personal the information is, it takes a determined person to get to it. There's such thing as hackers, but is that a reason to be afraid of posting on the Internet? Maybe for some, but there's really no reason to get all wound up about it. If so, don't bother with it then.
The safest way to eliminate a Facebook account is to tediously go through and remove every single thing on there, change the name and email address, do everything to it, lit it sit completely empty for a couple of days, then log back in and deactivate. You can fill in profile info with random content.
It doesn't take any sort of engineering degree, just takes a bit of thought.
Hmmm, I just might do that. My Facebook account was never all that active anyway, since I only added people I know, and my social circle is pretty small, so I didn't have thousands of posts on my wall or anything. In fact, that was one reason I deactivated the account in the first place. I thought that if I applied for a job and only had 40 or 50 friends, and the next person comes along and applies and has 2000, the employer will pick the person who has more friends because that would be a measure of being more well-adjusted, liked, etc. Everyone says I'm ridiculous for thinking that, but I know the ridiculousness of the job market, and of people in general, so I think I'm right.
As for the hoax, I wondered if that was the case, but given the fact that this article I posted was true, I thought that anything was possible. And as for having the right to post things online without them coming back to bite you in the ass, in a perfect world, maybe that would be true. But there will always be some people who want to use anything and everything against you, so the only real way to make sure that never happens is to not have any sort of online presence. That would be nearly impossible today.
I firmly believe that we don't "have the right" to post online without reprisal.
After all, before some of you fools had yet learned to keep your pants dry, some of us said or did things in real life, and were dealt real reprisal. Not being offended, more like, oh, maybe a punch to the face or something. I think just like in real life you be careful who you tell things and who you listen to, online is absolutely no different. The problem of course seems to be that online people don't develop the thicker skin that those of us who weren't afraid to play rough "in real life" had to develop. This is not just young people: this is a lot of older people too. Older people who beforehand would never dare to put themselves in harm's way, and had a lot of social taboos, reputation and other barriers preventing them from getting themselves into trouble, and getting their feelings hurt. But online, they can commit crimes like identify theft or just harass and bully. Many identity thieves now are your typical busybodies, maybe the local Sunday school teachers, librarians, any number of other places of respectable high society. The reason they can do this is that the anonymity removes any shred of danger some of us were willing to encounter at a bar, in a locker room or other places where trouble traditionally gets stirred up.
I just wanted to clear that up: there are no rights to safety online just as there are no rights to safety in real life.
I agree with leo's last post completely. couldn't have said it better.
The only problem with changing everything on Facebook, is it shows when and what you've changed. I'll have to play around with my account though. Maybe there's a way to stop that.
In short, like Leo pointed out, there's no guaranteed safe keeping on the Internet, as there isn't in real life in general. You can take precautions, but anything can happen, so don't live in fear but live with respect and awareness.
So you would remove all your friends and likes first, then change your profile initially your name and then everything else.
And I mean getting rid of all your apps, photos and videos.
And it never shows up when you remove your own wall posts or comments on other people's wall posts.
I say refuse to give up your personal info. While you can and you don't have a family to feed, bills to pay, and rent fight!
I want your banking records, and I want to place cameras in your house, so I can see if you are living a respectable life, before I hire you.
Oh, and who are you sleeping with, and what are your sexual habits?
Do you drink coffee, because all my workers must drink coffee?
Hell no!