<p>"What's your response if I ask for your Facebook password so I can log in as you and just poke around, see what's up? Probably something like, "Get out of my face, you crazy person." But apparently, some potential employers are actually asking for those private details with job applicants. The nerve!</p>
<p>The Associated Press (via Chicago Tribune) says this is a more common thing than one might think, especially in the public sector, relaying the story of one such job applicant who had an interviewer sitting at the computer ask him for his username and password. She wanted to log in as him and give his life a look-see. Nope! He withdrew his application.</p>
<p>'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.'" ...</p>
<p>If I was an employer of a young person right out of college, I can easily see why I would want to have it. I can also easily see why many young (and older) folks might not want to give it. </p>
<p>As far as I know, it wouldn’t be illegal for an employer to ask for it, or for an applicant to say no. The interesting territory is if there are real-world consequences for saying no.</p>
<p>My husband just went through administrative training and they were advised not to look at facebook pages because it could reveal information that they aren’t supposed to use in the hiring process. </p>
<p>It seems to me if that if the page isn’t public, that the person hiring can’t see anything, that should be the end of it.</p>
<p>Why couldn’t you say you didn’t have a facebook account? Not everyone does, even younger people. If its all set to private, they couldn’t find it. If I was asked this question I wouldn’t want to work at the company.</p>
<p>Facebook’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, section 4 (Registration and Account Security), point 8 states:</p>
<p>“You will not share your password, let anyone else access your account, or do anything else that might jeopardize the security of your account.”</p>
<p>So how can a potential employer legally ask for that information?</p>
<p>^Violating the Facebook Terms of Service doesn’t mean you have broken the wall.</p>
<p>Still, this is an outrageous breach of privacy. To me, it’s not much different than asking to read all the applicant’s email for the past 10 years.</p>
<p>Collegealum, wouldn’t the Terms of Service be considered a contract? So would the potential employer be asking you to break a contract? Just wondering, I am clearly not a lawyer, though I do play one on TV. ;)</p>
<p>I like a couple of the comments under the article:</p>
<p>“My response would be to ask for the employer’s online banking password, so I can ensure I’m dealing with a legitimate corporation that isn’t involved in anything shady.”</p>
<p>“Examples of illegal interview questions, the answers to many could likely be found snooping on Facebook:
How old are you?
In what year were you born?
Are you married?
Do you have a permanent partner?
Are you pregnant?
Do you have children?
Do you have any disabilities?
What clubs or social organizations do you belong to?
Do you go to church?”</p>
<p>You realize they would be able to read every private message you ever exchanged with anyone on Facebook. Not just see your posts, but your private conversations (FB keeps them, if you have noticed, when you start up a chat you can see the history of your chats with those people as well). This is a complete and unacceptable invasion of privacy.</p>
<p>I’ve actually had quite a few conversations with people about this lately because there have been many mentions of it in the news. There’s nothing bad whatsoever to be found on my Facebook account. However, I would NEVER share my password for any account of mine with anyone, especially a person I don’t know personally who works for a company that may or may not choose to hire me in the end. I would be more than willing to give them the link to my Facebook, but never my personal account information.</p>
<p>I liked eastcoascrazy’s answer. I too would ask for their bank account information to make sure that they had plenty of money to pay me. I’d also ask for all internal memos dealing with long term personnel goals to make sure they weren’t going to be closing my office in six months or planning to spin off my department, etc.</p>
<p>I can’t imagine what they are looking for. With those who recently graduated from college are they looking for evidence of drunken revels? As long as the employee is stone cold sober when they show up for work, why does this matter? Are they looking for things you’ve said like “I have a job interview tomorrow, but I’m not really interested in it”?. </p>
<p>Most people’s Facebook pages would reveal very little about their value as an employee and as someone said above, would reveal information that is illegal to ask about.</p>
<p>I think this is an absurd question to ask someone. I couldn’t even get my kids to give up their passwords! But I would definitely tell my kid to tuck that response above into his memory bank - and delete before all interviews. :)</p>
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<p>Why would they do this when they can easily have you submit to a drug test? Sure, you can show up to work LOOKING sober, but you might also be an embezzling coke head just barely functioning as “sober.”</p>
<p>If I were asked for access to my facebook account, I would say “I’m sorry, but I use my Facebook account for networking with personal friends only. However, I maintain a LinkedIn account for professional networking, and I’d be happy to link to you via that account if you wish…”</p>
<p>I still might walk away from any employer that asked to have that kind of access to my personal life, anyway. That’s just way too creepy.</p>
<p>There are a lot of excellent reasons to refuse. As others wrote, you’re giving access to everything in your account, including your private messages. While you might be fine with giving up your own privacy rights, you’re then violating the privacy of those third parties. </p>
<p>The main reason people shouldn’t give anyone their password is because of identity theft. Most people just use one or two passwords for most websites. Give the interviewer your password, and you could be giving them the password to your banking accounts and your email. Or at least a pretty good idea of what your passwords on other sites might be. </p>
<p>Deputy Thomas might think it’s a positive sign that people are giving him their passwords. I’m thinking he’s an idiot for hiring people who will so willingly give them up. Here at work every year we have to take a refresher IT security course. It gets pounded into our heads every year: DON’T GIVE ANYONE YOUR PASSWORD, because it’s a security risk. Well, duh! </p>
<p>I’m waiting to hear that some hackers have given the McLean County sheriff’s office a lesson in the importance of IT security. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>My son (college class of 2011) said he just went to interview training at his job, and was told not to look at the Facebook pages of potential hires. They were told they might not know the context of what was there and might get an unfair impression of the candidate.</p>
<p>I would NEVER give my FB password to a potential employer. If either of my kids was asked for theirs, I’d tell them to politely decline.</p>
<p>Edit: actually, I think Grad79’s answer is the best:
<p>There have also been recent news stories of potential employers asking people to pull up their FB account right then and there so the employer/HR person can look at the FB page without requesting the password.</p>
<p>^
I imagine this could still be an OCR issue… Some of the most common and immediately evident things on FB are your sexual orientation, religion, relationship status, political views, and if you have children, all of which are illegal hiring questions (which doesn’t mean they don’t get asked, of course, but still, making an applicant to show your their FB could be seen as a way of pretty blatantly “forcing” this information from them).</p>
<p>Terrible practice, IMO–what’s next, making someone hand over their cell phone, so you can read their texts?</p>
<p>Unless you were applying for a top security clearance (maybe), I really don’t think it’s anyone’s business during the hiring process. I know my boss has (on her own) looked at potential applicants facebook pages but she would never go as far as to ask to see someone’s page during the interview. If one were to look at my pics, they would likely think I’m an alcoholic with salacious tendencies. I am neither though I’d admit to anyone, when on holiday, I enjoy myself and libations are on the menu throughout my trips. What they would not find is information about how miserable my job makes me or the wicked thoughts I have about my coworkers. My boss is on my friends list but she cannot see much of anything for a reason. It’s none of her business what I do so long as I show up for work. As an applicant, the same applies. Once I am willing to put forth my best, it is none of their business if I decide to get drunk once in a while.</p>