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Employer Demands Facebook Login From Job Applicants

Hugh Pickens writes writes "Alex Madrigal reports in the Atlantic that the ACLU has taken up the case of Maryland corrections officer Robert Collins, who was required to provide his Facebook login and password to the Maryland Division of Corrections during a recertification interview so the interviewer could log on to his account and read not only his postings, but those of his family and friends too. 'We live in a time when national security is the highest priority, but it must be delicately balanced with personal privacy,' says Collins. 'My fellow officers and I should not have to allow the government to view our personal Facebook posts and those of our friends, just to keep our jobs.' The ACLU of Maryland has sent a letter to Public Safety Secretary Gary Maynard (PDF) concerning the Division of Correction's blanket requirement that applicants for employment with the division, as well as current employees undergoing recertification, provide the government with their social media account usernames and personal passwords for use in employee background checks. After three weeks the ACLU has received no response."

4 of 434 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Why the password? by mswhippingboy · · Score: 3, Informative

    /. is only a 90% waste of time. That's an acceptable level for me.

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    Sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel is the headlight of an oncoming train.
  2. Re:Privacy is so 20th century. by cowboy76Spain · · Score: 4, Informative

    Bullshit. Lots of it.

    Your statements can only be true if and only if the employement is a sellers'market (there is more demand for employees than supply). Else, the situation is "You don't want to give me your FB login? Fine, the next applicant will and you won't get another interview"

    Add to it that corporations are really out of hand for everything that they can control, and you'll see that soon everywhere you go will demand not only you FB login to check it but also to post praises to your employer and ask your friends to buy their products (and beware of befriending "known radicals" or visiting "non-adequate" sites). The more power they can get over you, the more power they can get. The only constraint would be the money they need to spend to control you.

    Your employer already has a lots of power over you. Give him more, and you'll end being your slave. What is fine for me if that only applied to idiots willing to comply with it, but soon they will think everyone is an idiot thanks to people like you.

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    Why can't /. have a rich-text editor? Editing your own HTML is so XXth century.
  3. Simple solution by Kupfernigk · · Score: 3, Informative

    There are a number of people with accounts with variations of my real name, several of whom appear to be grade A sleazebags. As a result, I created a Facebook account in my full name with accurate details, turned everything off and left it empty - purely to deal with this possible situation.

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    From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
  4. Re:False dillema by Stryker2 · · Score: 3, Informative

    No. The National Guard has always has dual missions, state and federal. National guard troops even get extra training during their basic training, to cover dealing with riots. The feds fund the majority of the costs so that the guard is available in case of need, but they still have to request the guard from the governor. They get around that "nicety" by threatening to take away federal funding.

    What they were not intended for was long term recurring deployments outside of declared wars.

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    Bother, said Pooh, as he called in an air strike.