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Maryland Bans Employers From Asking For Facebook Passwords
Freddybear writes with news that yesterday Maryland passed a bill through both houses of the state legislature that would forbid employers from requiring job applicants or employees to provide access to social media accounts. The bill now awaits only the signature of governor Martin O'Malley. "The bill is the first of its kind in the country, and has shined a spotlight on the practice of employers demanding personal social media passwords from potential hires, [said Melissa Goemann of the ACLU]." Similar legislation is being developed in California, Illinois and Michigan, according to the Washington Post.
Just accept that friendly request from that HR lady as a condition of employment.
Just last night I saw an ad on craigslist where the employer wanted me to click on a emloyment site that used Facebook as a login and requirement. I figured it was a scam. But it did offer a new password that you could choose different from Facebook but you had to friend the site first ... and the employer can check to see if you have a pic drinking or do a grammar and spelling check on your casual entries etc.
http://saveie6.com/
I've never heard of an employer asking this before. Do they try to save money buy using it as an alternative background check or something? Asking for someone's password seems ridiculous.
The Official Site of 1337 Pwnage
Exactly how much pull does Facebook have? This seems way to timely and motivated for government workers/politicians, it reeks of Facebook making a "request".
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
I hope they were smart enough to write this law fairly broadly. Employers should not be allowed to ask for passwords to any account, social media or otherwise. If they wrote it specifically for social media accounts, then they'll just have to write it all over again the next time some other type of account becomes the target of unscrupulous employers.
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
The surprising part about this news is that they actually had to pass a law making this practice illegal!
You would think this is such an obvious invasion of privacy that it would be covered by existing laws.
Still, if the great US of A is lecturing the world about "Internet Freedoms" while simultaneously perusing wikileaks for "terrorism", trying to pass laws like the SOPA, PIPA and shoving the ACTA down the throats of the rest of the world, I guess we shouldn't take anything for granted.
Ahh, where else but America... "The land of the free".
"AN EMPLOYER MAY REQUIRE AN EMPLOYEE TO DISCLOSE ANY
26 USER NAME, PASSWORD, OR OTHER MEANS FOR ACCESSING NONPERSONAL
27 ACCOUNTS OR SERVICES THAT PROVIDE ACCESS TO THE EMPLOYER’S INTERNAL
28 COMPUTER OR INFORMATION SYSTEMS."
the 'terry childs' portion...
can you enter in financially binding transactions with your account? like a stock broker? well-- good luck proving it wasn't you if your password for work accounts MUST be known...
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
"Maryland Bans Employers From Asking For Facebook Passwords" and then says "awaits only the signature of governor Martin O'Malley"
Which is it?
if you don't get it? equate it to requiring a ink stamp with your legally binding signature.....
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
...there's no piss-test for Farmville addiction.
You want to know how to help your kids? LEAVE THEM THE F*&K ALONE. --George Carlin
why would anyone say yes?
You don't have a Facebook account or any other social media account? What then?
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
There's no law requiring anyone to have a Facebook account (yet, anyway). And anyone who has their real name as their Facebook account is naive at best.
In the past couple of weeks, national awareness of this practice has skyrocketed. Businesses will be put on blacklists and shamed away from the practice.
We don't need more regulation to cover this. Let the national media do the work.
Oh, well, good: My employer's just moved across the river.
It's against the law to discriminate based on Age, Sexual orientation, physical impairment, family situation, or Race. All of these things can be determined via facebook. You can't ask for this information so you can't ask for facebook access. Done.
or so SCOTUS has now ruled. Wanna bet we now get a ruling that it's OK for employers to demand passwords? This is "employment-at-will" good ol' USofA, you know.
Takes bets on how many days 'til...
But I just can't help but think that any company who's core values are so completely fucked up that they request this, is someone who I just simply wouldn't want to work for in the first place?
I wish I was a neutron bomb, for once I could go off...
I for one welcome out IT overlords.
Focus your Facebook account on your off-hours hobby of DJ'ing for gay Jewish inter-racial couples retreats.
Then let them explain themselves if they don't hire you. They'd have to demonstrate how your off-hours activity did NOT influence their hiring process.
After they kind of implied that your off-hours hobbies WOULD influence their hiring decision.
It's a lose-lose for them. I don't see why any company with any intelligent HR person would even broach the subject of "social media" with applicants.
The Seattle police department had (as of last year) a similar requirement as part of their background check on applicants.
In that specific case I can see it being more reasonable. After all, they're already going to interview your friends and family and dig through your financial history.
They are not FORBIDDEN to ask but they will usually AVOID those questions because once they have that information they have to demonstrate that they did NOT refuse employment based upon it (should they not hire you and should you sue them).
The legal system being what it is ... it is just safer for them to not ask and therefore there is no way they could be using that information in their hiring decision.
Remember, HR is not there for YOU.
HR is there to protect the company from lawsuits that you can bring.
...when even Facebook is saying "hey guys, this seems like you're crossing a line with people's privacy".
First, we all know not to share passwords because we are responsible for what happens on our account since it does have a password.
But I would love to ask at an interview where I am asked for my password, are you willing to sign a confidentiality and liability agreement to protect me from any action that your company might take that violates and terms of use or laws while utilizing the information required.
I've been considering asking potential employees for their FB passwords.
If they fork them over, they don't get hired,
The first rule of passwords is you don't share your passwords.
The second rule of passwords is you don't share your passwords.
The thirty fourth rule of passwords is pretty sexy.
(* Unless they provide documented proof that they have kicked the CEOs of the businesses who started this shit in the nuts. Video is preferred.)
> ...when even Facebook is saying "hey guys, this
> seems like you're crossing a line with people's privacy".
Mark Z doesn't give 2 hoots about your privacy. He only cares about Facebook's bottom line. Facebook's product is personal information about you, e.g. your "Likes", sexual orientation, political leaning, and other demographic data. If employer-access to your FB account becomes widespread, then...
1) people will either leave FB in droves, or refuse to join in the first place; bad for FB
2) many people that stay will "sanitize" all their FB info, to avoid getting fired/refused when employers look in. This will pollute FB's database. This is just as bad, if not worse than people quitting.
Follow the money. This isn't about your privacy, it's about FB's bottom line.
I'm not repeating myself
I'm an X window user; I'm an ex-Windows user
The solution is simple, don't be a sheep, don't use fb !
First off, the hiring process is a two way street. You are just as much interviewing the employer as they are you. If you feel at any time during the hiring process that the employer does not suit you, then STOP! Walk away, this is not the employer you are looking for.
For an employer, hiring a new person is a high cost and high risk hassle that is to often delayed. So rather then do the process when the workload is still manageable, they only start looking when everyone is working an 80 hour week and tracking the backlog has switched from a project manager to an archaeologist. With all this, they then have the task of defining the role, explaining this to a recruiter, putting it out and deal with the deluge of applicants many of who have no hope whatsoever. You wouldn't believe what responds at times to a job ad. But the employer has to shift through it all in the hope of finding the one non-lying, non-insane, non-slacker, non-enemy making freak out there. A freak after all is someone who is not normal so a normal person in the hiring process is a freak. Trust me on this.
So, having just lost a month worth of productive work in total, there you are with all your hopes and dreams, interviewee #5347. STAND OUT!
An employer wants ONE thing and one thing only. One: make more money or to get laid with the new hire. An employer wants two things and two things only, 1: more money, 2: sex 3: no loss in productivity. Three things, an employer wants three things only.
To this end, the employer has a number of choices:
If you see malice in the above, that says a lot about you and a good employer would spot this and not hire you. If you never hired anyone or had to work with a new co-worker, you might not fully grasp just how much productivity is lost with not just the hire process but getting a new person up to speed. And (small) companies typically only hire once the workload has gotten to high already, so more work getting you up to speed will only make things worse. An employer wants to make sure that things afterwards will at least get better.
So how do you convince an Employer that HE/SHE/IT/THEY will BENEFIT from hiring you after the HUGE cost and hassle of hiring YOU? Simple, identify those costs and hassles and show how they can be minimized by you, or how they are not so bad after all.
Skills matter less then the capacity to acquire new ones quickly. Any new job will require new skills. Who cares you knew how to work with the systems of your old company, how quickly will you learn the systems at your new job? Emphasize NOT your experience with a system but how quickly you learned it. On your own. Self-study the new companies system shows they don't have to waste productivity teaching you.
Nobody likes a trouble-maker. Employers don't want strive among their employees, it costs productivity and they are hiring you to boost it. Don't boast about how buddy buddy you were with a small number of your ex-co-workers. Show you can get along with everyone and can just shrug off difficult co-workers without actually implying that you personally thought person X was difficult. Yes, that is bland. Bland is good, it has low risk.
Show how working for THEM benefits YOU. An employee who benefits is unlikely to leave. Make this benefit seem longer then the next paycheck.
SO, HOW DOES THIS ALL TIE INTO SOCIAL MEDIA?
Simple, an employer wants to know who you really are. Both of you are pretending during the interview. Simple dating advice is not to look at how the person interacts with you but with others. For women especially, want to avoid an abusive relationship? See how he deals with waiters and others in a subserviant role. That is how he will treat you once the honeymoon is
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Believe it or not people are different in an office setting then they are on "the streets". It's called being a professional and putting up with petty stuff is part of being a professional. It's not a requirement of any other aspect of your life unless you want it to be. If someone wants to call someone out on their bullshit on their own time doesn't mean the same person won't wear kid gloves with the office idiot that's rambling on about X, Y, and Z for hours on end.
There is so much bullshit associated with gov't enforcing various rules and regulations against businesses with the threat of a lawsuit (never mind the taxes and inflation,) it's just another reason NOT to hire people where the government is getting out of hand like this, getting into the business of every employer and how they want to run their company.
If there is all this outcry about facebook passwords being asked from employees by employers, then employees (or potential hires) shouldn't be giving out their passwords, and the employers won't FIND anybody who will give it up, and they won't have a choice but to stop asking.
But having government tell every employer how exactly an employer is REQUIRED to hire people and what the pay will be (all this equal pay nonsense, all the potential lawsuits associated with different genders, races, mandatory insurance coverage, mandatory this, mandatory that, whatever), it all leads to one outcome - less and less employment opportunities, as potential employers find ways NOT to hire more people and to try and do more with those, who are already hired, or to outsource to other places, where there is no such ridiculous powergrab by the government.
This is all nonsense. From the Civil Rights Act of 64, requiring something from employers, to this nonsense about "Lilly Ledbetter" or whatever, the minimum wages, the stupid idea that health insurance must be tied to the place of employment (rather than like all other insurances to the insured), etc.etc. All of this raises the cost of doing business, creates potential situation for a lawsuit, causes employers to find ways not to hire people, to outsource.
Realise this: you do not have a right to employment by anybody.
Corollary: if you start your own business, you shouldn't lose your rights to the government, and nobody should be getting entitlements out of you.
There are no 'employee rights', there are no 'employer rights', there are no 'minority rights', there are no 'women rights', etc. There are only individual rights.
Once you stop understanding this principle, you lose your economy to the government, that will always grow to ensure that there is enough threat of violence against employers.
This is not free people associating with each other based on mutually beneficial contract, where the prices are set by their corresponding market value. This is government meddling, the kind of bullshit that destroys the economy and the society, and you are part of its cause.
You can't handle the truth.
Can someone with some US law background explain Why there is a bill needed? to prevent HR or employers to ask for passwords? ... for what reason should a potential future employer have access to your private "property"?
I mean: in the rest of the world it is either illegal to ask, or illegal to give the password away. Illegal in italics as it is not strictly speaking against the law (in the) later case but against the TOS definitely. In the former case it is illegal
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
http://www.geekculture.com/joyoftech/joyarchives/1669.html
and it was *last month* !
Herve S.
This is exactly why some regulation is required. Because when companies are allowed to work "Free Market" style, they pull BS like this. I'm not for regulation that would hinder a company so much they can't do business, but sensible regulation will always be required to believe otherwise is naive.
There are certain questions that you can not ask applicants, but yet that information would be easily available through social media. Age, marital status, etc.
I'd like to see other states follow the example Maryland set.
I have paid to run a fairly complete background check on the person who ostensibly would be my boss and during the rigamarole that is the recruitment process I handed the results to them with the un-ironic comment that I wanted to be reassured the person I'd be working for was reliable and who they said they were and present any untoward risks to me that I'd I might have to bear the brunt of. Of course this person was all kinds outraged and hissy-fitted, cancelled the interview right there and threaten all kinds of bogus legal action, none of which was even remotely true. I did manage to uncover some minor legal troubles, credit score, basic financial history, names of family members, how much they paid for their home, cars, etc etc.
See I'm all about transparency.
I will bite.
When you buy a car do you look for reasons not to stop in as many dealerships as possible because of what a salesperson *might* do? Or do you think about what you want in a car and look at several before you make a decision?
You talk about the owners dreams and how no one owes you anything! Fair enough, what about my dreams and the other applicants? What about being penny wise and dollar dumb with investments that also include hiring talent?
The problem is if you follow what everyone does which is just cut and paste the job requirements and skills listed in the resume then the top candidates will be bullshitters and narcastic or ego maniacs. You need to find out what someone is good at. Not how long has this person used a particular software package like yours for x amount of time.
If the job requires great organizational skills and attention to details hire candidates who can prove that. An accountant or book keeper can fullfil this if it is an entry level position. If the job requires an analytical skillset a statistics or physics major can full fill the job. This is how a lot of computer programmers *used* to be hired. True they may not be too familiar with the languages yet, but there are many bad coders who fill a,b,and c on your requirements who know the language but write crappy code.
This is how HR should work. If everyone else hires the wrong way you then have an advantage as these people will be under employed and can work for cheaper.
http://saveie6.com/
And that's speaking as the owner of TWO businesses, plus the research hiring manager for an international one.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
When will they get around to banning employers from requesting letters of reference or performing criminal background checks?
Aah, change is good. -- Rafiki
Yeah, but it ain't easy. -- Simba
While I do love this description, and find it quite valid, I have one complaint. Learn to use 'than'. 'Then' != 'than'.
> SO, HOW DOES THIS ALL TIE INTO SOCIAL MEDIA?
> Simple, an employer wants to know who you really are. Both of you are pretending
> during the interview. Simple dating advice is not to look at how the person interacts
> with you but with others. For women especially, want to avoid an abusive
> relationship? See how he deals with waiters and others in a subserviant role.
> That is how he will treat you once the honeymoon is over.
> In a job interview, this is harder, so Social Media is a way of seeing the you
> who is not on his best behavior.
In 6 months, this approach will be absolutely useless, except to weed out the bottom 1% of idiots, who would probably not be able to fill out a job application anyways. Once everybody knows that the interviewer wants to see their FB page, you'll get two different scenarios...
1) The honest guy who doesn't do Facebook because of privacy concerns, and admits it upfront.
2) The smooth-talking BS-artist with a carefully sanitized Facebook page that makes him look like Mr. Clean. This guy is way more dangerous than the honest guy.
Discuss.
I'm not repeating myself
I'm an X window user; I'm an ex-Windows user
What if I don't have a Facebook account? No job for me?
You are full of shit.
Enjoy being a corporate slave.