Bozeman’s Facebook password grab
Is the Montana city’s request for job applicants' blog and Facebook passwords an invasion of privacy?
Should the town of Bozeman, Mont., be asking job applicants for their Facebook passwords?
(EPA/Corbis/Adi Weda)
Bozeman, Mont., is a lovely town, but its city hiring officials “have apparently lost their minds,” said Terrence O’Brien in AOL’s Switched. The job application for any city job asks, among other things, for your login name and password for social-networking and other personal websites, including Facebook, MySpace, Google, and Yahoo. This is clearly a “full-fledged invasion of privacy.”
Bozeman officials say they don’t throw out applications that leave that section blank, said Liz Wolgemuth in U.S. News & World Report. But the fact that Bozeman feels it can be that invasive “speaks to the challenges facing the unemployed in this market.” Bozeman’s method may be “extreme,” but it’s by no means the only novel or stringent trick employers are using to winnow down the “piles of résumés for fewer openings.”
Asking for “pointers” to an applicant’s public blogs and Facebook pages is understandable, said Lisa Hoover in Computerworld, if somewhat lazy on Human Resource’s part. But passwords? Look, “what my Google search history holds, what I’ve watched on YouTube, or what my Facebook inbox contains is no one’s business but my own.”
That’s why Bozeman is reviewing its policy, said Amy Farnsworth in The Christian Science Monitor, and will probably only ask that you “friend” city officials on Facebook, for example, so they can see your profile. But Bozeman’s “application curveball” is a reminder to watch what you post—your future potential employer is probably watching.
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7 Comments
Posted by Ed, Monday, June 22, 2009, 1:09 pm The fact that anyone in the United States would agree to hand that information to the their employer is both sad and scary.I strongly suspect that the TOS for each of those sites prohibits password disclosure anyway. This is a lawsuit waiting to happen and I hope Bozeman loses big.
Posted by taxman, Monday, June 22, 2009, 4:20 pm If you have nothing to hide,this shouldn't bother you. Yeah, I know, I know...it's the point.
Posted by Aaron, Monday, June 22, 2009, 4:45 pm This is why we need strict constitutionalists on the state and US supreme courts. The leftist toalitarians cannot be allowed to violate the citizens' rights to privacy.
Posted by Dan, Monday, June 22, 2009, 5:04 pm This is crazy. Privacy goes both ways if they want job applicants' private facebook information, the government officials who instituted this policy should have their own information shared with the public.
Posted by beb, Thursday, July 2, 2009, 1:19 pm password plz
Posted by kmbr, Tuesday, August 4, 2009, 1:29 pm Aaron has his politics mixed up. Boseman is in the heart of conservative red country this is not leftist totalitarian policy. It is more likely they are rightwing religious consevatives who want to see if the candidate is a drinker or smoker and have no compunction about invading someone's privacy. I can't imagine this policy would stand up to constitutional scrutiny given it will likely reveal things about a candidate which are not allowed to be considered when hiring, such as religious beliefs.
Posted by Cheree, Saturday, October 24, 2009, 3:05 am Wow. Go ahead and march to the supreme court. If these people are stupid enough to ask you for passwords on a job application, be bold enough to sue them for everything they have. Left wing, right wing, who gives a hoot. When is wrong just wrong? Get a grip people. Stop debating about the obvious. I know there is a recession, but it does not mean that people have to sell their souls and jump through legal hoops to get a job.
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