Employers asking applicants for Facebook, Twitter passwords

My wife is the HR director at a decent-sized state-funded agency, and they are in the middle of a Facebook/Twitter controversy now.

Some of the other management-level people there say she has no right to look up applicants on social media sites, but my wife contends (and I agree) that she is just looking at their public pages and seeing if there's anything incriminating on there. She's not asking to friend them or asking for passwords, she's just seeing what kind of decisions they are making with their public pages.

She says they get about 20-30 qualified applicants for every opening they have, so if she goes to someone's facebook page and their main photo is of them passed out in a pool of their own puke (admittedly an extreme example), that says enough about their judgment to DQ them from consideration.

I don't agree with asking for the passwords, but beyond that, we're in a time when you just can't afford to give a potential employer an excuse not to hire you.

 

At-will employment.

They can hire you (or not) or fire you for any reason they see fit (except the categories specifically prohibited by law -- for the moment).

Do it or they will find somebody who will.

The miracle of the marketplace.

Employers in Bangladesh don't have to worry about workers getting skittish about handing over their online passwords.

 

Here's my password ... right here ...

 

Gotta love that larger-paper sophistication of Football_Bat's.

 

Only would take one finger. I don't mess with Facebook.

 

Jugdish gave us his.

 

Not if they don't want to get sued, and get sued, they will, as logging in under another individual's username and password is a violation of most sites' Terms of Service, and is the online equivalent of opening another person's mail. A relatively minor federal offense, but a federal offense nonetheless.

 

Playing devil's advocate, as I think it's ridiculous to ask people to hand over their passwords, but ...

If it violates the sites' Terms of Service, isn't that between the potential employee who handed over the password, and Facebook/Twitter? It certainly doesn't seem like it would fall under something that the potential employer could be sued for.

And if someone willingly gives over the username and password, is it a federal offense? That seems it would be like me giving my neighbor a piece of my mail and giving him the OK to open it, then crying foul and federal crime when he opens it.

 

Come again?

 

Not if the username and password is given voluntarily.

If you want to get (or keep) the job, you will elect to hand them over, because if you don't, somebody in Bangladesh will.

If you don't like their request, get another job.

The miracle of the marketplace.

 

I understand that's the market place but that kind of an ultimatum is extortion in this job climate. It is akin to asking to go through someone's mail or for their bank account number. And from the sounds of the first story it doesn't sound entirely legal. It is a complete invasion of privacy and no emoyer has the right to ask for such information. And I really don't think I could work for a company or person that did ask for it.