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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."
and it's not just because I don't have any friends
One full of HOORAH, LOVE THE GOVERNMENT! and liking AMERICA: WE'LL PUT A BOOT IN YER ASS, but without many friends attached. And then you'll have your other (perhaps similar) Facebook page, but with your real friends and activities. That's not misleading, they wanted your Facebook login. They got it. No biggie.
There's a spot in User Info for World of Warcraft account names? Really?
Disclaimer: I am an avid non-facebook user. I refuse to support what I consider a complete waste of time and computing resources.
Sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel is the headlight of an oncoming train.
A lot of people have the opinion that the ACLU is only about shutting down the speech of Christians/Whites/Men/*insert majority group here.* I think this case proves that not to be the case, and demonstrates the good that the ACLU actually does: Protecting personal privacy, freedom of expression, etc. This is a very important case, one that could potentially set a very bad precedent. It's good that there's at least one somewhat powerful organization on the side of personal privacy in this case. I hope groups like the EFF get involved as well.
"We live in a time when national security is the highest priority, but it must be delicately balanced with personal privacy"
Calling it a delicate balance is a sleazy way of excusing any violations by suggesting that it's such a difficult fine line that nobody could be expected to do the right thing, all the time. There is no delicate balance. Personal privacy and liberty must always trump security, for without privacy and liberty, there's nothing worth securing. There's no point in protecting a bank vault that has already been looted of everything.
Also. A corrections officer in a prison. Hardly in a position to be trading secrets with Iran or Osama.
Cue the "no such thing as privacy! glorious free market! employer rights 100% teh awesome! john galt ROX!" posts in three... two... one...
If you're actually prepared to sue, I'd say refuse to provide the login, and let them terminate you. Then go after them for wrongful dismissal.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
If I were the employee, I'd use Facebook's activation feature to temporarily remove my account from the system. "What account? Facebook? Don't have one."
I would offer to exchange the key to my account with a key to his house front door or his email account. He can accept the exchange or reject it. When the shoe is placed on the other foot, the view of the request changes perspective. Whatever excuse he uses to not provide them to you, you use the same. If he does exchange keys, have fun.
The truth shall set you free!
Myself I'm an elitist bastard who only takes jobs at very liberal companies, but through the contemporary global society this corporate/bureucratic culture of general hostility is bound to make its mark on the lives of us free dwellers as well. Not to say I didn't care for the people suffering this in the first degree, but they've got their own choices to make. It would be best for the common good, though, if these environments would go largely disregarded.
I was the real korpiq until I woke up clowned.
I think there are plenty of arguments against the necessity of background checks/drug tests, etc as employment conditions, but I don't understand why facebook should get a pass, when they might otherwise have authorization to crawl up your ass for the background check.
From http://www.facebook.com/terms.php
Statement of Rights and Responsibilities
This Statement of Rights and Responsibilities ("Statement") derives from the Facebook Principles, and governs our relationship with users and others who interact with Facebook. By using or accessing Facebook, you agree to this Statement.
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.
So they wanted him to break the Facebook Statement of Rights and Responsibilities ?
Just saying it like it are.
Corrections officers work in prisons, so not just background checks into past criminal activity, but openness to future criminal activity (including corruption) matter a lot. This should have been handled with a detailed questionnaire and battery of psychological tests, and collecting reliable intelligence on every single officer during the entire time they are working in a prison.
If you have nothing to hide this surely shouldn't be a problem.
war is peace
invasion of privacy is for privacy
Facebook is a huge waste of time anyways. I'd guess that blocking it increases drone productivity...
MOD parent up. That's the most sensible post I've read all day! There's no reason I can think of that corrections officers need to be using Facebook at work.
If I can be modded down for being a troll, can I be modded up for being an orc, or a balrog?
If they are douchy enough to ask for that crap.. you should probably move on.. srsly..
Terms and Conditions, 4.8: "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."
So to keep your job, you have to break the law?
And am I the only one hearing Judas Priest in my head now? :-)
I think you've missed the point. They want access to his facebook account in order that they can have a look at the sorts of things he says and people he hangs out with, not in order that they can keep tabs on whether he's using it at work or not.
If blocking facebook is the only way you can keep your employees actually doing their work of a day, you've got way bigger problems with your management than you're going to solve with a web filter, anyway.
Either this is a well played tongue-in-cheek statement, or you're retarded.
If you believe in privacy, and believe you have "nothing to hide" at the same time, you're a goddammed idiot
n/t
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
Facebook should publicly tell all job applicants "please cancel your Facebook account before applying for any job that requests the password, or we will cancel it for you if we find out you shared your password.
At the very least, they should reset the password and warn the user not to give it out again or the account will be canceled.
Sharing your password is typically a violation of the terms of service.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
and I thought my boss was bad when he made me friend him before he would hire me!
I don't get it. Simply say "Sorry, I don't use Facebook" and you done. What's the problem here? Move along, nothing to see here...
Facebook should notify all employers and background-check companies that they explicitly do NOT have permission to access a third-party's Facebook account even if they are using a login, on the assumption that the use of the login was coerced. Let them know that exceptions will only be made if the account owner AND the agency desiring access both certify under penalty of perjury that no consideration - including nothing related to getting or keeping a job or promotion - was offered in exchange for the access.
Once they do that, any employer or agency who does it will get an individual warning and if they do it again Facebook will press charges for criminal unauthorized access of a computer.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
I was actually thinking it's a false dillema, starting with the premise that "national security is the highest priority." Sure as hell isn't for me. I just want a functioning public transit system, power, running water, and law and order in my community. Funny how our state got slammed with record levels of snow, and the National Guard couldn't help out...because they're deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq. Funny how funding for social spending has dried up and all the teenagers in my community are now running around shooting each other (and innocent bystanders) because they have no education, no job, no future. The only people that seem concerned about national security are the people paid to do so or the people who otherwise benefit from such efforts and its rhetoric.
Please help metamoderate.
this is very easy to test as long as you do not worry about your employer seeing your posts. I think advertisers also look at your cookies as well.
Do some searches for rare but sane stuff you are not interested in. Say Coin Collecting or Sewing. In a couple of weeks you will generally start seeing lots of strange ads for those things. They also do demographics. I see ads based on what they think my age is.
Given that it's the correctional services, they're probably more worried about the employee making some kind of wildly inappropriate comment or posting an embarrassing work-related picture that then becomes public due to an offended "friend" of the employee and causes bad PR. For example, any comments or pictures that could be interpreted as prisoner abuse. Even matter-of-fact observations regarding the apparently all-too-frequent in-prison rapes. There are legal liability issues involved that are more serious than in your average corporation.
That said, I think it would be better if the USA decriminalized drug possession and taxed the hell out of it. That would reduce the prison population, remove a major source of income from organized crime, and make it easier to treat addicts and hardcore criminals appropriately.
Laissez lire, et laissez danser; ces deux amusements ne feront jamais de mal au monde. - Voltaire
The whole point of this is to invade their *private* lives.
I can only imagine how many of them would be in Gitmo or prison for treason, domestic terrorism or "other".
When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned - this is the sum of good government.
All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.
Conquest is not in our principles. It is inconsistent with our government.
Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.
I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies.
Those Who Sacrifice Liberty For Security Deserve Neither.
Lets not forget this Gem.
That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
Try "hunter2". I hear that usually works.
I personally think this whole thing is just outrageously stupid. If nothing else, the employee should be fired for giving their credentials away freely. Of course, the government doesn't think this way--"we want your credentials to sites so we can see what you're posting!" rather than "if you give up your privacy freely, what other credentials might you give up?" What a strange world we live in...
Although, I guess that's one way to get a job at HBGary. Oh, you give up credentials to any account just because someone asks? You're hired!
He who has no
> Oh! I'd put in my resignation!!! ...
> Anyone have a different opinion?
Yes, very much so. Walking away is fine if this is a job interview - after all the interview is for finding out whether you are right for the employer and the employer is right for you.
But this is an interview for keeping the job. Obviously he got the job without supplying his facebook password, so why does he have to do it now? It sounds like they are unilaterally changing the rules, and that is just not on.
The real question is whether they would put the request in writing. That would be excellent evidence...
You see ads? Adblock all the way.
it didn't take anything at all to predict this - it was too bloody obvious and reasoning was sound too.
You can't handle the truth.
While I agree with everything being said for most jobs this job is one of the exceptions.
Prison guards, Cops, Judges, CIA spooks etc should expect no privacy.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
2 years ago I thought about leaving my job, In preparation I created a facebook page using my real name, with two artificial friends. I posted several "updates" with pictures: "Standing in a small group" at my old university refectory, a photograph at a church bake sale(I am agnostic, but those grey hairs make a proper cake), and a few from my mountain climbing days. If I motivate myself to still leave, I will spend a half hour and make another update.
I refuse all friend requests. Even my spouses.
My Manager returned from a 5 day management course recently. One 1/2 hour lecture was on Social Media.
In post Patriot Act America, the library books scan you.
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.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
Why don't they comply by setting up another FB account, with no friends and no posts and simply give that to the employer?
I always thought Washington was the greatest. He resisted all attempts to make him a king.
But I liked RonBO a lot.
Heck, I liked Clinton too. Especially after these last two clowns.
..and I sure as hell wouldn't hire anyone who complied.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
just way for the list of passwords to leak out and then we will a even bigger mess.
A while back, I created an account on ESPN and used "Miguel" instead of my real name - leading to ads in Spanish.
"We live in a time when national security is the highest priority..."
No, it isn't the highest priority. There have been times when it was. When the British army invaded Washington in 1812. it was. When the Nazis had conquered Europe and were getting ready to do the same to the US, it was. When the USSR built 10,000 atomic bombs and talked about conquering the world, it was.
But not now. No foreign power is an immediate threat. Not even close. Terrorism is down to the nuisance level, well below floods, hurricanes, blizzards, and drunk driving as a problem. Street crime is down. Most of the Mafia has been crushed. Nobody is talking about a revolution, except maybe the Tea Party crowd. There is no big national security problem right now. It's time to lighten up, and take a hard look at Homeland Security's budget.
The big problems right now are economic and internal, not foreign threats.
So many posts here are about not using facebook, not having facebook ect... This isn't an option for everyone. A huge portion of my friends use facebook with ages that range from pre-pubescent family members to senior citizens. I have friends around the world with whom I'd have minimal communication if not for facebook. Facebook allows me to keep touch with my friends and acquaintances abroad and at home in a single place that they will check often (too often). I deprive myself socially by not having an account. I don't care for it, but so many people I know use it I have no option. I just avoid saying or posting anything anything remotely incriminating.
Who are the HR people and Lawyers that think these things up? This is a state agency right? Shouldn't we be able to, as taxpayers, demand the identity of whoever thinks up these foolish decisions that cost the state in litigation costs? I'd like to know so I can either vote them out of office, or not vote for then if they decide to run for office.
"4. You will not use your personal profile for your own commercial gain (such as selling your status update to an advertiser)."
Because Mark wants to sell my personal info for profit, and doesn't want competition?
My status update might be "Just got off the plane in New York". Presumably I can sell that information outside of Facebook and this rule #4 is only restricting me from handing a link to my Facebook profile to an advertiser.
Alternate interpretation of rule #4 would be that if you accept the Facebook Principles then "All your personal information are belong to Facebook".
What if you facebook pages says you are part of some religion that the employer may not like?
Color me unimpressed. Correctional officers make their living guarding over people who live in cages. They are charged with depriving dozens of people of their liberty and privacy. Accounts of correctional officers abusing their privileges for personal profit --or just gratification-- are commonplace. It's human nature for correctional officers to fall prey to their power; as a result these people need to have a very serious level of power-checks and reviews in place.
"We must secure liberty and privacy above anything else!" Except well, you know... for prisoners. I have little sympathy for securing the facebook login info for someone who spends his days watching over caged people who are forced to shit and piss in front of their cell mates.
They want access to his facebook account in order that they can have a look at the sorts of things he says and people he hangs out with
"Are you, or have you ever been, a member of the American Communist Party?" comes next.
Saying you don't have a FB account isn't too smart if your really do. All they have to do is check and if you do have one, then you've been caught in a lie. Not good for a job applicant or recertification. A better approach would be to give them your facebook account but not the correct password. Then if they actually tried to get on your facebook account you can say that you simply changed your password. If you really want to be honest, give them the real password and then go change it. Or, better yet, take your FB page off-line until after hired.
Why just facebook? Why not linkedln or myspace?
If you aren't smart enough to give the correct answer, which is "I don't have a Facebook account" because you actually think that Facebook is a "communication tool" then you probably deserve to be fired.
This isn't just a Facebook story...it's a problem that someone thought it was OK to share ANY user name and password to ANY service. This is something you just don't do, and people who fail to realize that need to be educated! In addition to all the other things that could be hosed, your password and E-mail address could be changed by the person logging in, to the point where you're unlikely to regain access to your account no matter how much you beg the administrators.
"Microsoft killed my company, I hold a personal grudge. I don't use Microsoft products and neither should you."-JWZ
This sounds like a test. I mean if an applicant was willing to give out their facebook password for a job, it's be clear that they were bribeable and shouldn't be guarding prisoners.
I also have many friends all over the world, from many different age ranges. I have lived in two countries and travelled quite a bit, and am or was active not only in the Free Software world, but on other communities with much less technical affitions.
And your points hold also for me. And for most /. readers, I'd venture. I joined Facebook out of curiosity in 2005. Decided not to log in again in 2007. In 2009, I almost missed my high school's 15 year post-graduation gathering, as it was completely organized over Facebook (but I am still in contact with two or three classmates). My girlfriend (who lives 7000Km away and is about to come to my country, yay!) and her family, as well as my family and most of my friends, use Facebook as well.
Yet, I don't. And I think I have persuaded a couple of my friends not to use Facebook, or to reduce their exposure, the share of personal information they upload.
Some people will think I'm nuts... But they did so anyway when I told them I didn't want to use Adobe Flash, or MS Windows, or whatnot. Maybe I was born to be statistical noise far off the median, but it just comes natural after some time
People have been tolerating piss tests to get/keep jobs for years, and the inevitable result is that employers reach out for more.
The thing to do is apply for jobs when you have one (ideally), and refuse piss tests when asked. If enough people start turning down jobs for that reason, it will go away.
But America will have to grow some balls, first.
expandfairuse.org
So what would I do if they asked for my information??
There is no -1 Disagree.
Isn't the whole point of FB to invade the users' lives?
"Tongue tied and twisted, just an Earth bound misfit
The only appropriate response should of course be to refer them to the reply given in Arkell v. Pressdram.
'The tyrant will always find pretext for his tyranny.' - Aesop's Fables
The problem is that some guy way back when had little sympathy for securing the rights of prisoners. Now you have little sympathy for securing the rights of the people who guard prisoners. Who's next? Every time you point at some group and demand they have less privacy, realize you're almost certainly part of some group someone else is pointing at.
This is the kind of threat that security is supposed to protect us from!
No.
I will not provide you with the means to spy on my personal life. If you'll penalize me for being honest, I'll lie. I don't have a FB account. If I knew it was coming, I'd make myself unsearchable and temporarily defriend and coworkers and say that I do not have a facebook account.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
If they can demand your Facebook login, why not your personal e-mail accounts? After all, who knows what seditious material you might be sending and receiving there?
And why not an anal examination of all of the hard drives in your household's personal computers? The RIAA does that on the most flimsy of pretenses.
Really, where does it end?
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
I personally don't use Facebook because it's unknown where the direction of the company is going to go, and they seem to be very aggressive about their use of the data. Don't trust them. It's that simple.
I know many people that do. Of those people, I know plenty that had bad experiences, and plenty that had good ones too. I personally wouldn't judge somebody on a Facebook account, because the use cases are all over the map.
That's what good interview skills are all about. Christ, if they can't do a good read on the person they have DIRECT and IMMEDIATE access to, perhaps it's time to get some education, instead of falling back on shitty things like asking for the keys to people's personal lives.
To me, this shit is all self-correcting. Anybody that makes a mess of their lives on Facebook will probably only get to work in the fucked up places where that shit doesn't matter. Fine by me. Employers who turn to the Internet in abusive ways to get advantage over their employees are not worth working for either.
People tend to sort themselves out over time. No worries here.
The best thing is to just manage your life, and your employment opportunities and think things over before you do them. Shutting some doors that you never, ever plan to walk through isn't too big of a deal. Not sure? Then be conservative about it, until you are. Most of it is all that simple.
Blogging because I can...
It's called contextual ads - various companies use small pixels to build up a profile of you and then serve ads based on the profile. FB may do extra stuff, but the targetted ads are nothing new.
"We returned the General to El Salvador, or maybe Guatemala, it's difficult to tell from 10,000 feet"
Would you consider employer request to Facebook to be in a similar category as employer demanding to read ones mail or listen in on phone calls?
Kathy Godin â" Award-Winning Mortgage Loan Officer & Publisher of related website. Serves North Carolina
Those who fail to learn the lessons of history are doomed to misquote them.
Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
I guess we have to whip out that classic post-9-11 meme again, except this time without the irony: "If this is what we've come to, then the terrorists have already won."
On a more practical level, I'd suggest that people wishing to be hired or recertified close down their Social Media accounts. When asked to provide access to their Facebook account (or whatever), they can answer with complete honesty that they don't have such a thing. After the interview has been conducted, and after a suitable period of time, they simply open a new account.
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
I'm sorry you see it that way. If this were an opinion's forge, maybe then would I login and make comments again.
Instead, only a small fraction of the population is visiting here, and those very few individuals have a nasty habit of having the same ideas and opinions as everyone else surviving here. Many tend to ridiculing any other worldview but their own little narrow conclusions and concepts.
My karma is Excellent and maxed out. It's not about the occational moderation abuse, which do happen when people disagree and moderate instead of discussing. /. is off my bookmarks and I refuse to login, thanks to the mindless sceptical people who have no depth or width in their perceptions and would just like to have their worldviews and opinions confirmed by like-minded people. Ie., the spiritual and grounded people are far and between, and often refuse to post here for the same reason.
However,
I'm currently just using /. as a termometer on the limits of society's development, and /. defines a clear frontier border and limitation of scientific understanding.
Actual discussion, where people boldly put out what they believe in and experience themselves, and are able to modify their worldview and opinions, is so far an utopic myth on the internet.
Long time /. reader and user.
We live in a time when national security is the highest priority
Uh, no? Where do you get that from? National security is no more or less important than at any other time in history. There have always been nations who hate your guts, there have always been people armed with the latest in destructive technologies, there have always been people getting killed violently.
Scientifically speaking, apply logic 101. If your assumption is incorrect, your conclusion is worse than false, it is meaningless.
We really, really need to teach kids logic 101. Maybe then when they grow up, this nonsense by which national policies are determined by unsubstantiated claims will finally end.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
Facebook is granting you access to their network. They could easily set up their TOS to prohibit delegation without prior permission from Facebook.
If they did that then if you delegated access the person using that access would be unlawfully accessing FACEBOOK's systems and Facebook could charge them with criminal computer access.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Ahem. The British army didn't invade Washington in 1812. It was in 1814, during the "War of 1812". HTH. However, you are remarkable in my experience for even remembering that it happened at all :)
In every single other aspect of your post, you are as right as a right thing wearing an "I'm right" t-shirt at a "We are Right" rally.
You're only jealous cos the little penguins are talking to me.
It is possible to see this in a positive light - even people involved in the day-to-day implementation of authoritarianism are capable of understanding violations of privacy when they themselves are the target.
No facebook at the job, is what they are now able to do, block the sites, etc.... but for them to go so far as to say if you work here, you are belong to us, sounds way to close to big brother bending you over.