<p>^^ amen to that last line.</p>
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<p>If you’d support that, then why not just let FA offices hire private investigators to check out some sample of people. I don’t like fraudsters, but I think privacy rights are really important and schools more than most places should be trying to adhere to them. On the other hand, online info really isn’t private. There are too many ways for it to get compromised, so those who post there should beware.</p>
<p>Not sure what a zipcode would tell an admissions committee. Where we live, a lot of neighborhoods are fairly economically diverse, so it wouldn’t tell anything.</p>
<p>Yes, I actually would support paying private investigators to look at a random sample of applications and imposing harsh penalties on people who lie.</p>
<p>And wasn’t there an earlier conversation on here about exactly how it is that an admissions committee of 20 people actually reads 35,000 plus applications? Do you really think that in the 4.5 minutes they’ve allotted to an application, they’re actually looking up zipcodes, performing quality control checks and judging the veracity of every applicant’s story? The story of that fraudster Adam whatshisname who attended Harvard suggests otherwise.</p>
<p>With regard to divulging Facebook passwords, there are three salient points, IMO, all mentioned elsewhere on this thread.</p>
<p>First, there is the fact that doing so violates Facebook’s terms of service. And there’s at least one good reason, which gets me to the second salient point, that Facebook includes this prohibition in their terms of service. By giving up access to your private accounts, you would thereby be giving wholly unauthorized access to your friends’ private information. The third salient point is the fact that there is information on someone’s private Facebook page that is none of an employer’s business and that they are prohibited by law from asking about. I have to assume that it is extremely unusual for hiring managers to be that clueless (or arrogant). If I were asked for such information, or if my kid was, I’d be on the phone in 5 minutes dialing up every lawyer and PR person I know.</p>
<p>And as for this:</p>
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<p>Is this a real story of fraud or just a hypothetical story? Independent of the out-and-out lying involved in calling yourself a first-generation college attender if your dad went to med school, it would require some rather creative bookkeeping to hide a neurosurgeon’s income. But maybe people figure out ways. If fraud of this sort is common, then colleges certainly have reasons to want to sniff it out using whatever legal and ethical methods are available to them, including “poking around” the publicly available portions of Facebook if it came to that. I don’t have any data to suggest colleges do or don’t have reason to suspect rampant fraud.</p>
<p>Seems in the case of a neurosurgeon pretending to have hospital custodian income, the larger problem will be with the IRS, not the kids’ college. With IRS verification of FAFSA, it’s impossible to tell the IRS one thing and a school another.</p>
<p>So lesson is disable fb page when applying for a job, say you don’t have one, once you get job enable again. Or don’t use full name on Facebook. Going into aerson Facebook is also looking at their friends who if they have privacy setting made have an expectation. So if a school looked at my daughters fb then were able to check me pit, that’s a problem. Fb needs to take a stand</p>
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<p>I think that’s the ticket, really.</p>
<p>Momzie- my school quickly boiled it down to around 10,000 “probably legit” apps; extra readers come on for the reviews and the target is more like 12-15-20 minutes per app, most getting multiple reviews.</p>
<p>But, to continue your point, if we (or FA) had checked even 1000 of those 10,000 for FB or googled- at, say, 10 minutes each- that would total over 160 hours. Who’s got that time and staff? And, most FB is dumb kid-stuff anyway. I’m not convinced this sort of checking is legit, no matter what rag scares us. Urban legends in the making?</p>
<p>Our zipcode includes both McMansions and public housing.</p>
<p>I agree with the ‘urban legend’ notion here. Reputable companies train those involved with interviewing as to what is appropriate/not to ask of candidates. In the US, it is illegal to base a hiring decision on age/race/national origin/marital status, etc…the very types of things an interviewer logging into your FB account could determine. You can’t use it as a basis for deciding to hire (or not hire) someone. The idea that part of any legit job interview would involve handing over your FB password is total nonsense.</p>
<p>Facebook responds:</p>
<p>[Facebook</a> Also Creeped-Out By Employers Looking At Profiles, Threatens To Sue | TPM Idea Lab](<a href=“http://idealab.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/03/facebook-also-creeped-out-by-employers-looking-at-profiles-threatens-to-sue.php?ref=fpnewsfeed]Facebook”>http://idealab.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/03/facebook-also-creeped-out-by-employers-looking-at-profiles-threatens-to-sue.php?ref=fpnewsfeed)</p>
<p>And as you might expect, the ACLU is against it too:</p>
<p>[Your</a> Facebook Password Should Be None of Your Boss? Business](<a href=“http://www.aclu.org/blog/technology-and-liberty/your-facebook-password-should-be-none-your-boss-business]Your”>Your Facebook Password Should Be None of Your Boss’ Business | ACLU)</p>
<p>I don’t actually understand if an employer cannot ask you other personal questions such as “Do you plan to get pregnant in the next year?” How they can ask your for your facebook account info where you might have posted that very answer. </p>
<p>It doesn’t even make sense. </p>
<p>So the answer then is no you cannot see my FB page because the answers to questions you aren’t allowed by law to ask me may be posted there.</p>
<p>Not only would this practice not fly at some tech startups and financial companies I worked for…my supervisors would be more inclined to sanction the interviewer for asking for such information. At best, they’d be given a stern heated lecture about how that encourages bad internet/network security practices in potential employees and open up the company to potential liability. </p>
<p>With some really hardcore supervisors…they’d be gunning to fire said interviewer on the spot for not only the above…but being so obtuse about information/technology/network security risks which could be incurred by hiring potential candidates who would blithely give away such information. </p>
<p>If anything, they’d be much more inclined to use questions to screen out anyone who casually/carelessly gives out what is supposed to be closely guarded information such as passwords to one’s accounts and would prefer to hire those who protest the appropriateness of asking such invasive and what we all feel should be illegal questions…</p>
<p>ABSweetMarie’s post #45 covers it nicely:
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<p>Facebook’s response repeats one essential point: by giving up your password you’re not just giving away your private information - which is yours to divulge or not divulge as you’d like subject to privacy and discrimination laws - but that of your friends, which is not within your authority. This of course won’t deter jerk employers who are digging anway.</p>
<p>The best answer I can think of is to say, “It’s a violation of my contract with Facebook to give up my password, which has said that it will sue employers who push people to do so. So, even apart from the privacy rights of my friends which I cannot give up, I’m afraid I can’t give that password to you. I hope you understand.” </p>
<p>If the employer still pushes, you’ve still got a decision to make – which I would hope would be to (a) run from this job, and (b) tell the local press and anyone in the media who will listen that this company is a totalitarian, law-breaking pile of excrement. I agree that the number of companies who will push for this information is actually likely to be small, but if you do run across one, it’s such an easy story to write, the local press will likely jump on it.</p>
<p>If an interview asks for passwords, ask him/her these questions: Does the company require applicants to give passwords? If yes, do you have a written copy of the policy?
If the interviewer says the company does not require applicants’s passwords then contact the HR department.</p>
<p>Maybe someone already included this full line: 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, when my dau shared her password with me, she was violating nothing. I would not- and did not- jeopardize the security of her account. This is different than willingly giving it to a stranger.</p>
<p>In today’s economic climate, if you want that job- or if you need it- are you really going to challenge the interviewer, make a fuss, state your rights? Or, as in the case of many women who are asked prying questions, (inadvertently or otherwise,) simply answer, “Thats something I prefer to keep private.” Or, “I no longer use FB.” And, keep your FB privacy setting at the max.</p>
<p>The irony here is that it is a violation of every reputable organization’s policies to share your password. That’s IT Security 101!</p>
<p>Lookingforward: Yes, your D did violate the terms by sharing her password. If you sign an agreement that says you “will not” do something and then you do it, you are not in compliance with the terms. So signing up under these terms means you agree NOT to share your password and NOT to let anyone else access the account and NOT to do anything else, in addition to these things, that might jeopardize the security of the account. </p>
<p>Certainly, in this economic client, people might do lots of things they’d prefer not to do when jobs are more plentiful. Stipulated. But even if you are willing to give access to your own private information, you DO NOT have the right to grant access to your friends’ private information, which is what you would be doing if you handed over your password! That seems so elemental to me. Access to my friends’ phone numbers, email addresses, photos, private utterances, etc., is not mine to give.</p>
<p>Employers have been asking illegal questions for the longest times. I don’t think giving the password is the response to give, but telling the employer, you’ll friend him or if he wants to look at your facebook account, you’ll open up for him, is the better way to go. Having said that, you’d better have a nice clean facebook account. My kids have 2 Facebook accounts at least. One that they let family and teachers and other such people access and then their private ones with their friends that are not even in their names.</p>
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<p>Yes, I will and I also told my kids to do so.
I will never work for such a company. All companies I have been working for have very professional policies to protect company intellectual property and company liability. People at my past and present workplaces cannot use company computers for social networking.</p>