ACLU Gets In Facebook Password Debate

Many were appalled last week to hear that some employers are asking current employees and prospective employees for the passwords for their Facebook accounts. Apparently this practice is bigger than people imagined, and now the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is involved.

Robert Collins of Baltimore Maryland, was looking to get reinstated in his job as a correctional worker in 2010. He was told that as a condition of his re-hire he would need to give his boss his Facebook password. He reluctantly gave up his Facebook password. Collins reports that the person considering his re-hire immediately went to Facebook and logged into Collins account. The interviewer said he was doing this to make sure that Collins had no gang affiliations.

More after the break
“I did not want to do it, but because I really needed my job and he implied that this was a condition of recertification, I reluctantly gave him the password,” Collins said in February in testimony before the Maryland House of Representatives.

There was another report carried by the Associated Press about New York statistician Justin Bassett who said on a job interview he was asked for his Facebook password. He refused.

“It’s an invasion of privacy for private employers to insist on looking at people’s private Facebook pages as a condition of employment or consideration in an application process,” attorney Catherine Crump said in a statement from the ACLU. “People are entitled to their private lives.”

Thebostonchannel.com also brought up the fact that requesting someone’s Facebook password is against their terms of service:

“You will not share your password, (or in the case of developers, your secret key), let anyone else access your account, or do anything else that might jeopardize the security of your account,”

We’re pretty certain that despite what employer’s want, this practice will not continue much longer.

source: Bostonchannel