Came across this petition on the Password Protection Act going thrugh the Senate (In the US) and they gave a link to a petition that I thought could use a boost of signers. While I don't have a Facebook account, I'm fully against being asked to give any account password away. Last I saw, This Petition had just under 55,000 signitures. I have to believe it could get more with better exposure.

As added discussion value, what do you think, should it be legal for employers to force you to give them your password to any social site, for threat of not getting a job, or losing one? And also, to what end? Is the next step access to your bank accounts, and wiretaps?

I believe this is my first started thread, and glad it can be for something important.
(Edit: Captcha is hobby-horse, boy did I read that wrong at first.)
(Edit 2: The first answer should be: "Yes, it is to make sure we represent them well.")

Absolutely should not be legal and so dumb that it should not have to be made illegal.

DaFuq does my employer need to see my PMs, Private Pics, and friends list for?

Give them password. Claim password was stolen (back it up with any proof that the password has been misused in any way). Sue the hell out of the company for exposing your private information.

You won't get the job but you'll get some money for food and rent.

It's extremely invasive and I would never give up my passwords to any such site to any employer. Well, I might give them my Facebook, but only because there's damn all on it.

Call me old fashioned, but I think this current trend to smear the minutia of your personal life all over the internet is kind of weird anyway.

JoJo:

DoPo:
Give them password. Claim password was stolen (back it up with any proof that the password has been misused in any way). Sue the hell out of the company for exposing your private information.

You won't get the job but you'll get some money for food and rent.

That's not a good idea though if you have information that you don't want potentially getting out into the public domain, once the cat's out of the bag it's impossible to put back in.

That's the beauty of it - you don't have to have anything you consider personal on Fb. You can, however link your Fb account to something else and claim that it's important to you. After all, you are the sole judge of the information's worth.

If you give them your password and they refuse you the job, you can absolutely sue the hell out of them due to discrimination based on race, gender, illness, et cetera.

They shouldn't be asking for it in the first place, and this law should be passed, but if it isn't then hopefully someone will take this on board.

What the hell do they ask for if you don't have a facebook account? Also, why not just set up a dummy one that doesn't really let them know anything?

When I applied for my last 3 occupations I had to let them look at my bank account records... So I don't see what the big deal is about facebook.

edit: just realized my most recent job did not require that. also before I get quoted to death. Nearly all police departments/jails/prisons require to check their officers 'credit' before hiring nowadays. The theory being if you can't pay your bills and taxes you probably wouldn't make a good cop. It also checks to see if you have 'mysterious' money (Ie drug dealer money).

I'm not even on Facebook, but I find this practice appalling. Demanding passwords should be illegal, and employers who do so should face consequences.

So yeah, I signed the petition.

with a few exceptions, such as government employees requiring security clearance, I can see it, but working for say.. clorox, Macys, Dow, GM, Moms friendly robocorp. Absolutely not. You are a paid employee, your not an indentured servant and a boss has no place to monitor your day off habits, nor does a company have a right to hold you liable for what you do/say in your free time, even if it paints your corporation in a bad light.

This is getting ridiculous and its another instance illustrating how we are moving to a government of corporate statism

It's illegal for them to go through your mail, why would digital mail be any different? However that only applies to private messages, if you post it on the internet for the world to see it's fair game.

I'm not giving any potential employer my password to anything. I'll go work for someone that doesn't invade my privacy.

Pretty sure I'd just walk out of the interview if an employer told me to give them my password. I wouldn't work for a place that has so little regard for privacy, even if it meant I had to live on unemployment rations.

Well actually I might make a legitimate looking dummy account in which the only posts I make are talking about how I love to work and enjoy the products of whatever company I'm applying for.

Kendarik:
No, it should not be covered by any legislation, employers should be able to ask.

Should you give it to them? No. You are under no obligation to do so, and I'd reply with, "sorry, but that would violate my written agreement with facebook not to share passwords and if I did so I would demonstrate that I am untrustworthy. Since I'm sure you would never want to encourage unethical behavior in employees, I have to assume this isn't a serious request anyway". You'd either get hired, or be better off without that job.

If they ask you to friend them, totally within their rights and very reasonable for a potential hire.

For current employees, depending where you live that might already be illegal, but generally speaking employers have no business in the private lives of existing employees unless they can demonstrate it damages work.

Thank you for delivering the right answer. By saying something like this, employers know that you can think for yourself instead of just blindly following orders.

There are also companies that hire based on how many twitter followers that person might happen to have. More followers mean you can flog more products to them.

why should an employer care about my personal life anyway? so long as I show up on time and work well at my job why the hell should they care about my facebook status?

so no, never they should not invade my privacy for no reason

Interestingly, it's not legal in this country (UK) for an employer to ask me if I'm planning to have children any time soon. The idea is that if employers could demand information about a woman's reproductive aspirations they might decide not to hire her. (Because who wants to spend three months getting someone fully trained for a role only to have them sod off on maternity leave?)

Although I can see the reason for it, I still think having this as actual legislation is a little heavy-handed. Any employer that feels the need to ask that question in an interview is probably not the sort of person I want to work for anyway. On the other hand, I can see some jobs where this might be a very relevant concern. I know someone who works in a lab and was asked if she was planning to have kids (in an under-the-table "we're-not-really-asking-this" sort of way) because the chemicals she would be working with have been known to make women sterile.

In the same way, it seems a step too far to ban employers from asking stupid questions and making stupid demands. Any company that asks for someone's Facebook password as a condition of working there is likely to find that they don't exactly attract the cream of the crop.

Aurgelmir:
I never understood why the hell employers have to gain from having access to someones facebook.
I understand they want to gain as much control and power over whoever they might want to employ but fuck I don't give my employers the keys to my house or car!

Have you ever heard about any employers asking to read your diary? (if you keep one that is)
No, you probably have not, because it is considered private, and of no consequence for your qualification to do the job you are applying for.
The same can be said about facebook. It is a private matter that you share with friends (and people that you once knew that you for some reason have friend requested), should your employer wish to gain access to this information he can friend request you AFTER he has given you the job, and it is up to you if you feel it's okay to accept that request.

I also think it should be illegal because it's done from a point of power. Anyone refusing to give up their facebook password feels that they are now less likely to get the job, so in a way the employer is forcing applicants to do something they don't want to to get a job... hey I know something else that is considered bad form (and I think illegal) to ask of a job applicant... and I don't see how it is much different.

Much as I agree with your general sentiment, I think the comparison with reading your diary (which people keep making) is somewhat missing the point.

The difference between looking at your Facebook account and reading your diary is that your Facebook account is at least semi-public, whereas your diary is only read by you.

If an employers finds that you regularly use your Facebook account to tell your (approximately eight thousand) "friends" what a sulphurous pit the company you work for is, that's likely to make them unhappy. Writing in your diary about your boss being a green-skinned orc is no problem because no one apart from you is going to read it.

None of the above stops the whole thing from being eye-rolling levels of stupid. The corporate obsession many companies have with making sure you are "one of our sort of people" only gets in the way of hiring hard-working, competent individuals. In a good economy, the workforce could vote with their feet and just not work for such companies. But I'll grudgingly admit that the current climate leaves things far more open to abuse.

I get that the economy sucks but why would you even consider working for someone who would demand such a thing from you ?

That's the kind of sick stalker behavior that people get restraining orders for.

Just imagine introducing yourself to business contacts or potential customers and telling them your company has this practice in place.
It would make me think I was dealing with sociopaths.
I wouldn't do business with a company like that.

No they should not and I would not want to work for any employer that asked for my any of my passwords. Of course I don't have Facebook so it's not really much of an issue for me.

Shawn MacDonald:
No you don't. What do you think a backround check is? They want to know everything about you. Facebook is not like your cellphone, or your private diary. You post it up for the whole damn world to see. Most people that have a Facebook are just posting pictures of camping trips, or when they are hanging out with friends and family, ect. A company can't say no to you because of your religion, or sexual orintation. Saying no to it makes you look more shady. If you have nothing to hide, then let me see it, after all, your friends and family have seen it.

They may want to know everything about me, but they don't have a right to. They're welcome to have a look at anything public-facing I put on my wall, but they don't need my password. What the tone of a certain conversation I had with an ex-gf is none of their concern. What council I provided to a friend whose marriage was in trouble has no bearing on my ability to do my job. And if -perhaps- I like to party on the weekends and share rememberences of the events with some close friends; that is no one's business but my own and my friends' so long as I show up on Monday as sober as a judge.

"What have you got to hide?" is a childish argument. I have a right to keep my inter-personal business to myself, once I give them a password; I suddenly have no control over my account. I have no control over who sees it, I have no control over who edits it, and if my company 'misplaces' my Password so that some disgruntled asshole decides it would be a gas to pose a me to alienate my friends and family; suddenly I have no control over that either.

Whatever that company stands to gain pales in what I risk, and that is not right. So forget that.