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.

Comments

Not a problem

[Billly Gates]

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.

Re:Not a problem

[russotto]

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.

Such trolling opportunities. Fake facebook account, with goatse et al shared to "friends only".

Re:Not a problem

[Osgeld]

"and the employer can check to see if you have a pic drinking"

and they can look at it all they want, they are not my mother and I am well beyond legal age to drink, they dont like it then they can kiss every square inch of my ass cause I would not fit in to their "sand vagina" culture anyway.

Re:Not a problem

[LordLucless]

No, just create a "People That Suck" group, set your default privacy policy to exclude that group, and add your employer to that group. To your employer, it'll just look like you never use Facebook.

Re:Do employers really ask for your fb password?

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

In the words of Bill Hicks, "Where's all this shit happening?!"

I keep reading about this but have never seen it happen myself or talked to anyone whose had it happen to them.

Re:I hope it isn't too specific.

[TheBlueCrab]

It seems like its broad enough. Here's the actual bill itself.

Re:Do employers really ask for your fb password?

[DarwinSurvivor]

In British Columbia, Canada there is actually a list of things an employer is NOT allowed to ask you (age, marital status, religion, sexual orientation, etc), and almost all of them can be answered by viewing your facebook account.

Re:Do employers really ask for your fb password?

[cpu6502]

The Maryland government police were asking for facebook passwords. Then it was discovered some private employers do the same, so the Legislature stepped forward and did its job (banned the practice). Now we just need to get the other 49 Member States of the union to do the same. :-)

Re:Do employers really ask for your fb password?

[MaskedSlacker]

Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department requires it for one that I know of personally.

Re:What if

[Anonymous Coward]

You'd be my first pick. Can't stand fadbook, it's like AOL for retards. AOL is like the web for retards. The web is like the Internet for retards. As for the Internet...Al Gore is a retard. It all makes sense now.

Re:What if

[swillden]

I've said it before and apparently I'll say it again. This is how the interview would go:

HR Person: "Please provide your login credentials for Facebook." Interviewee: "I don't use Facebook." HR Person: "Right. 'Refused to provide Facebook login credentials.'"

Result: Circular file.

Not for me. Here's how it would go:

HR Person: "Please provide your login credentials for Facebook."
Me: Have a nice day (as I stand to leave)
HR Person: Where are you going?
Me: To interview with better companies.

Re:Does the submitter know how laws are made?

[Fluffeh]

Which is it?

Neither and both. This is the final stage in the law-making process. It has passed through both houses of the state, which means that all the folks have agreed to it as it is. While the Govenor *could* veto it, even not signing it means it passes into law. While it is possible that this falls over through a veto, it is one of those one in a million chance things. So, effectively, you can say once both hosues agree, it has passed, but is still awaiting the formality of the boss' signature.

Think further.

[khasim]

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.

Re:Think further.

[Billly Gates]

That is the problem right there.

HR has switched from finding the best talent for a position to mean discluding any and I mean any reason not to hire someone and then claim they couldn't find qualified applicants.

They are scared that if they make a bad hiring decision that it will reflect poorly on them and are obsessed with liabilities. In the great recession they got a tremendous boast of having many and sometimes hundreds of applicants to filter through for each position. Social media makes the job even easier.

Witness the case of requiring experience first? 30 years ago you left college applied for a job and it was understood that your grades and dedication proved trainable. Today, you can even be trained but it has to be percisely what the position requires in the exact same way or they are not interested.

Doing something for X long doesn't make you good at the job. Someone with the right smarts and work ethic does. HR needs to change their ways

Re:Think further.

[tlhIngan]

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.

There are third party services that'll google you and search for public social network information. These services are the ones who see your actual information and they black out anything that is illegal to be used - i.e., if you have a normal photo of yourself, your face and hands (but not, say your T-shirt) will be blacked out to prevent revealing race, age, and gender. Any other information that reveals it will also be blacked out.

Here's an example one someone ran.

So the company can claim ignorance by presenting this stuff.

Of course, things that invalid this check would be asking for you password directly (since they could access it). Which s why these companies don't do that - they just seek out blogs, profiles and other stuff publicly accessible.

Re:Think further.

[Totenglocke]

HR has switched from finding the best talent for a position to mean discluding any and I mean any reason not to hire someone and then claim they couldn't find qualified applicants.

Dead on. I work full time and am finishing grad school and looking for a new job and that's the impression my friends and I have had of the majority of people we interact with from potential employers. They blatantly go out of their way to find reasons NOT to interview / hire people instead of finding the best candidate for the job.

Witness the case of requiring experience first? 30 years ago you left college applied for a job and it was understood that your grades and dedication proved trainable. Today, you can even be trained but it has to be percisely what the position requires in the exact same way or they are not interested.

Again, 100% accurate. The overwhelming majority of "entry level" positions won't even look at your resume if you don't have 3-5 years of experience doing the EXACT things listed on the job posting - nevermind that some of them may include specialized software that only someone who's previously held the position would have ever used, you MUST know how to use it for an entry level job.

Doing something for X long doesn't make you good at the job. Someone with the right smarts and work ethic does. HR needs to change their ways

That's why I told a friend the other day that eventually I want to be a hiring manager - because so many of them do it wrong, I want to show people how to do things right.

These are dark days indeed...

[nobodyman]

...when even Facebook is saying "hey guys, this seems like you're crossing a line with people's privacy".

The "chilling effect" is what Facebook fears

[knorthern knight]

> ...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.