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.
Make part of the Facebook login process to enter your your race, age, marital status, or other things that it is illegal for employers to ask you about in an interview. If they ask you to log in for them, you can claim that that is a form of asking you that information and is not allowed.
If you have a good lawyer, you can probably sue them already. In most facebook accounts, people provide a lot of information that it is illegal for the employer to ask about - age, gender, race, sexuality. Employers can't ask these questions, and similarly, they can't ask questions that they know will reveal that information. We don't really need a new law, just a smart lawyer
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
We do have another alternative, as unlikely a road to victory as it may seem. We can create a PR storm targeting the company using twitter and other social networks to call a company out on its privacy violating ways. Even a year ago I would have ignored the various online petitions and such as not having actual power. But the recent victories against Bank of America and Verizon have really got me thinking. Perhaps if a company is big enough or the violation flagrant enough to garner some buzz, there is a way to punish companies for misbehavior.
Your comment reminds me of when my company did layoffs: ... and an extra two weeks of severance if you agree not to sue us.
Employer:
Employee: Wait... I can sue you?
It's actually easier to sue for discrimination if you allow them full access. They'll suddenly know your age, political preference, your other-racial significant other, sexual preference, etc. Plenty of fertile ground for lawsuits.
it would be fun. Help me facebook.
Humor aside, if that is your goal you do not need help from facebook nor a new law. Existing laws will do quite nicely. For example it is illegal to ask a job candidate their age and a prospective employer can get sued for doing so. Logging into a facebook account exposes a prospective employer to much such prohibited information.
Or is this a test? Those who say 'sure' don't get return calls, those who say 'not a chance'...show the requisite intelligence and are kept in the running for the position?
People in cars cause accidents....accidents in cars cause people
Oh, did you think a severance was something you are entitled to? I see your line of reasoning a lot of slashdot. The time to negotiate is not when you are being laid off/fired. Consider yourself lucky for getting anything above and beyond a pink slip.
Am I ever glad I don't live in whatever backwater country you're in. In the civilized world, severance is mandated by law in the case of a layoff, either in the form of advance notice ("we'll be shutting down operations next November, line something up now and if you get a job before then, we'll give you a reference"), or pay in lieu of notice ("you're all done. pack your things, go home. your final pay will have 4 weeks' pay in lieu of the notice"). The amount of notice or pay in lieu is dictated by the size of the layoff... a small layoff of 20 or fewer people is only 2 weeks, with it increasing significantly with the number of people being let go. When Dell shut down operations in this city, I walked away with a $25,000 severance package (which would have been more, but I was given 4 weeks' notice), and got to keep my medical benefits for 6 months, and I wasn't anywhere near senior management.
There is a difference between being laid off and being fired.