Slashdot Mirror
Facebook: Legal Action Against Employers Asking For Your Password
An anonymous reader writes "Facebook today weighed in on the issue of employers asking current and prospective employees for their Facebook passwords. The company noted that doing so undermines the privacy expectations and the security of both the user and the user's friends, as well as potentially exposes the employer to legal liability. The company is looking to draft new laws as well as take legal action against employers who do this."
A least one U.S. Senator agrees with them.
Anyone can draft a law. Even Reddit. Even you. Then that party needs to convince a member of the House or Senate to introduce it, and then both need to pass it, and the President needs to sign it, and (if applicable) the Supreme Court needs to uphold it. Take a Civics class.
And a company has the ability to say, "hey we don't want to hire you." As the article states you could sue for discrimination. But in this economy that has as about as much chance as snowball in hell. IMO the reality is that with social networks whether or not it is "private" you are putting information out that could get in the wrong person's hands.
Since the beginning of the web (I started developing websites around the beginning of 95) I have been ever careful of what I put out... The key is to make it look "real", but not enough to make you look bad.
"You can't make a race horse of a pig"
"No," said Samuel, "but you can make very fast pig"
Do you not read Slashdot? http://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/02/19/1746256/Employer-Demands-Facebook-Login-From-Job-Applicants
My company's Info Security rules actively prohibit password sharing. My employer obviously wants a clear audit trail for any given action, because they want to know who to blame for fraud, monumental cock-ups, etc.
I didn't realise there were large companies that didn't do this. It seems like common sense.