Privacy Law
Mont. Town Rescinds Rule Requiring Job Seekers to Reveal Social Web Passwords
Posted Jun 23, 2009 3:01 PM CST
By Martha Neil
Rescinding a controversial hiring policy that one commissioner called "a gross invasion of privacy," the governing body of Bozeman, Mont., voted yesterday that its human resources department would no longer require job applicants to reveal their personal passwords to social networking websites such as Facebook and MySpace.
The 2008 policy was intended to help the city complete a thorough background check, but went considerably beyond commonplace employer reviews of information publicly available on social networking sites, according to the Billings Gazette. It may also have violated the terms of use of some sites.
A copy of the release (PDF) formerly used by the city to obtain this information is provided by the Digits blog of the Wall Street Journal.
In the future, the town's city commission will reportedly approve changes to hiring policy, and there has also been a call for more advance consultation with the legal and information technology departments.
Earlier coverage:
ABAJournal.com: "Town Requires Job Seekers to Reveal Social Media Passwords"
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Comments
jkp
Jun 24, 2009 9:10 AM CST
They had to repeal it. No one was going to give out their password. There is a reason why it is called a “password.”
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Daniel
Jun 24, 2009 9:57 AM CST
It violates Facebook’s terms of use, as well. One of the first things we’re taught when we learn about the internet is to -never- tell anyone your password. I appreciate the ideal of making sure they only employed people with integrity, but requiring access to their online information goes too far.
Aside from the more technical aspects, I also appreciated Newsy’s angle, questioning how we use these sites. Though it’s wrong to require that kind of access, it’s also wrong to think that anything we post online is private or anonymous.
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