Last week, the Associated Press published a story about the fact that hiring managers sometimes ask job seekers for full access to their social media accounts, particularly those hosted by Facebook.
It’s hardly a new practice, but it seems to have grown right along with the use of social networks as the medium of choice for sharing personal information. The employer requests, though, are drawing fire from Capitol Hill. Senators Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) have requested that Attorney General Eric Holder investigate claims that employers have been asking job applicants for their Facebook username and password.
In a statement released to the AP, Schumer said: “In an age where more and more of our personal information — and our private social interactions — are online, it is vital that all individuals be allowed to determine for themselves what personal information they want to make public and protect personal information from their would-be employers. This is especially important during the job-seeking process, when all the power is on one side of the fence.”
If it’s not illegal now, it might be in the future
Schumer and Blumenthal say they want to know if the employer requests violate the Stored Communications Act or the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Blumenthal’s staff also is drafting a bill that would make it illegal for employers to request access to private information in online accounts.
A California state senator, Leland Yee, is preparing a similar bill, and lawmakers in Illinois and Maryland also are introducing legislation to curtail such requests.
In an advisory to Facebook users
, the company’s chief privacy officer, Erin Eagan, advises users against sharing their login and password with prospective employers, noting that disclosing the information could compromise more than just the job applicant’s privacy.
“As a user, you shouldn’t be forced to share your private information and communications just to get a job,” Eagan writes. “And as the friend of a user, you shouldn’t have to worry that your private information or communications will be revealed to someone you don’t know and didn’t intend to share with just because that user is looking for a job. That’s why we’ve made it a violation of Facebook’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities to share or solicit a Facebook password.”
For the politicians involved — Schumer also called on the Federal Trade Commission to investigate reports that smartphone apps for Apple‘s (NASDAQ:AAPL) iOS and Google‘s (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android operating system are designed to capture private information without authorization — this is a political opportunity as well as a call to action.
But it’s also true that employer requests to see private Facebook pages are not good for Facebook, which has endured scrutiny over privacy issues in the past and does not want users to avoid using the site because of what some observers, including the American Civil Liberties Union, say is employer coercion.
