When Justin Bassett interviewed for a new job, he expected the usual
questions about experience and references. So he was astonished when the
interviewer asked for something else: his Facebook username and
password.
Bassett, a New York City statistician, had just finished
answering a few character questions when the interviewer turned to her
computer to search for his Facebook page. But she couldn't see his
private profile. She turned back and asked him to hand over his login
information.
Bassett refused and withdrew his application, saying
he didn't want to work for a company that would seek such personal
information. But as the job market steadily improves, other job
candidates are confronting the same question from prospective employers,
and some of them cannot afford to say no.
In their efforts to vet
applicants, some companies and government agencies are going beyond
merely glancing at a person's social networking profiles and instead
asking to log in as the user to have a look around.
"It's akin to
requiring someone's house keys," said Orin Kerr, a George Washington
University law professor and former federal prosecutor who calls it "an
egregious privacy violation."
Questions have been raised about the
legality of the practice, which is also the focus of proposed
legislation in Illinois and Maryland that would forbid public agencies
from asking for access to social networks.
Since the rise of
social networking, it has become common for managers to review publicly
available Facebook profiles, Twitter accounts and other sites to learn
more about job candidates. But many users, especially on Facebook, have
their profiles set to private, making them available only to selected
people or certain networks.
Companies that don't ask for passwords
have taken other steps - such as asking applicants to friend human
resource managers or to log in to a company computer during an
interview. Once employed, some workers have been required to sign
non-disparagement agreements that ban them from talking negatively about
an employer on social media.
Asking for a candidate's password is
more prevalent among public agencies, especially those seeking to fill
law enforcement positions such as police officers or 911 dispatchers.