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California Employers Can't Ask For Your Facebook Password
J053 sends word that California has passed legislation making it illegal for both colleges and employers to request social media account access from students, employees, and prospective hires.
"Assemblymember Nora Campos, who authored the bill, called AB 1844 a 'preemptive measure' that will offer guidelines to the accessibility of private information behind what she calls the 'social media wall.' ... According to Campos' office, more than 100 cases currently before the National Labor Relations Board involve employer workplace policies around social media. Facebook has also said it has experienced an increase in reports of employers seeking to gain 'inappropriate access' to people's Facebook profiles or private information."
Privacy is not dead, it's just losing the war.
Take arms and fight back!
Some people don't have a choice, they need the work.
Life takes interesting turns, but the most interest is when you're off the beaten path.
Really, I live in a (arguably) much less "free" country and I couldn't imagine anyone would ask something like this as a requirement for hiring.
What kind of idiot asks this?, what kind of idiot accept it?
FB users make a legally binding agreement not to share their passwords as part of the ToS for having a FB account.
The federal version was voted down in the House by the Republicans.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/27/facebook-password-protection-amendment-congress_n_1384045.html
This space for rent.
What I don't understand is why employers even think this is reasonable. Yes, yes, I know, corporations bad, but corporations are still made up of humans and you would think some of those humans would understand that this is overreaching into people's private lives.
I don't see what someone's social media accounts have to do with their ability to work. Sure, they may party hard, or bad mouth their employers, but it's not exactly uncommon and it's not going to stop just because people don't put that on their FB account.
I suppose I am not surprised that someone would try this, what I am more surprised about is that they have gotten this far with it. Forcing people to turn over personal information should be something that a corporate legal department knows is going to get them in legal hot water.
And if they actually agreed, I wouldn't hire them (and I wouldn't actually let them give it to me). If they can be so easily coerced into sharing confidential information and giving up their rights, they don't have the backbone I expect in my employees.
Now, in my job people are given significant authority and responsibility that needs to be safeguarded, so that's a real concern. In other jobs maybe that's not a criteria for hiring decisions.
MadCow.
I used to have a sig, but I set it free and it never came back.
Some people don't have a choice, they need the work.
I personally don't agree with the practice and to a degree, I misspoke.
A person always has a choice, but many people will let go of information about themselves for purposes that are their own. Many people who are unemployed and are desperate for work will happily give up that info just for the chance at work.
Many people are good and decent people found in horribly hard times and need the work to support themselves and their family, so they are willing to provide the info for they may feel it's their only chance.
I find the practice deplorable by corporations and I personally would rather walk away from the opportunity of work, but I'm not in that situation and haven't been faced with it.
Life takes interesting turns, but the most interest is when you're off the beaten path.
The problem with "probable cause" is that there are too many "laws" that outlaw things that shouldn't be outlawed. Crime is what causes harm to others, and carrying a joint is not causing harm to others, period. Smelling like Marijuana is not "probable cause" that a crime has been committed. "Looking Suspicious" is not a crime.
Crime Prevention is, quite frankly, the road to tyranny. Want to "prevent crime"? Start by removing laws criminalizing things that cause no harm to anyone else, all those "crimes" will now disappear. Then, step up REAL punishment of criminals. Don't just lock them up in a comfy prison, make prison a horrible place to be. Make the prisoners earn their probation by working at jobs nobody else wants to do. Screw the panty waist "cruel and inhumane" designation for anything that doesn't cause real pain. Put tents up in the desert and a barbwire fence and call it good. If our Troops can live in that condition, then our prisoners can too.
THEN we'll have a handle on crime.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
This, if you don't own a facebook account nowadays, you're clearly a terrorist pedophile serial killer mime who hates freedom.