Job Applicants Asked for Facebook Passwords

[Andy Chalk]

Job Applicants Asked for Facebook Passwords

Applicants for a clerical job in North Carolina have been asked to provide their usernames and passwords for Facebook and any social networks they belong to.

It's not unusual for companies to check out Facebook sites of potential employees, but a police department in North Carolina took it one very disturbing step further by not only asking applicants for a clerical job whether they had a Facebook or MySpace site, but also demanding the usernames and passwords necessary to access them.

It's an outrageous demand - you wouldn't let a prospective employer come over to your house and root around in your medicine cabinet or underwear drawer, after all - and I have a hard time believing it's even legal to demand that kind of information in the first place. It's one thing to search the internet for publicly available information, but quite another to demand that people hand over the keys to their kingdom and deny them employment if they refuse to do so.

On the other hand, what's legal and what's done are often two entirely different things, and if enough people just roll over for this and fill in the blanks without question, it could eventually become a common, or at least tolerated, practice. It may sound unlikely, but consider the words of former News of the World deputy editor Paul McMullen, who very likely summed up a widespread contemporary attitude toward privacy in his testimony at the Leveson Inquiry yesterday. "Privacy is for pedos," he said. "Fundamentally, no one else needs it."

Something to bear in mind the next time you're annoyed about having to deal with online privacy settings - and when you're thinking about just how much personal information you want to put out there for the world to see.

Source: Tecca [http://www.tecca.com/news/2011/11/30/facebook-password-jobs/]


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[Terminate421]

Um.....thats odd.

Its like if what they say Origin does became a living person.

 

[ZeZZZZevy]

And that's why my facebook account is completely locked to people who are not my friends.

Also, I would refuse to give this information. I'm sorry but there's simply no reason for you to be able to access my account. Sure you can look at it, I don't have anything to hide, but there's absolutely no logical reason for you to have my password.

 

[Pinstar]

They didn't technically say to provide the user name and password of your social media account. It merely says to list a username and password if you have a social media account.

If I were an applicant I'd give them my username and password that I use to pay my garbage collector's bill online.

 

[GeoFlux]

So it's the police department that have done this? The applicants that refuse haven't really got too much choice then, can't imagine them getting very far if they say that it must be illegal and demand something to be done about it.

 

[putowtin]

And that's why my facebook account is completely locked to people who are not my friends.

Also, I would refuse to give this information. I'm sorry but there's simply no reason for you to be able to access my account. Sure you can look at it, I don't have anything to hide, but there's absolutely no logical reason for you to have my password.

It's kinda the reason I've never bothered with any social network site
(that and the fact I blame social networking sites for the death of social networking)

 

[SwimmingRock]

Privacy isn't even the major problem here. If they have your account name and password, couldn't they pretend to be you and post whatever the hell they felt like under your name? Speaking of which, isn't that fraud? Seriously, the police are trying to commit fraud? What the fuck is going on here?

 

[imnot]

Um.....thats odd.

Its like if what they say Origin does became a living person.

Oh god, its walking among us!

 

[Iron Mal]

I'm fairly certain this is in fact illegal and that the applicants could take legal action against the employer in question

Why the employer would even need such information is debateable as well, are we sure this wasn't just another front for a scam like so many other 'wonderous easy jobs' you can find online are?

EDIT: I'm sorry if my post comes up multiple times, my internet started acting funny when I posted this so if there's any double posting it wasn't intentional.

 

[Baresark]

It may sound unlikely, but consider the words of former News of the World deputy editor Paul McMullen, who very likely summed up a widespread contemporary attitude toward privacy in his testimony at the Leveson Inquiry yesterday. "Privacy is for pedos," he said. "Fundamentally, no one else needs it."

Does anyone actually believe that? Privacy isn't about keeping secrets, it is a right, in and of itself. In regards to that statement, it's not illegal to be attracted to kids, it's only illegal to act on those attractions. So, pedophiles don't need to be secretive about that stuff, they only need to keep their noses clean. Freedom is such a pesky concept, I know.

 

[AugustFall]

This is rough, It's like asking for a house key so they can root through your stuff every now and then, or a wire tap on your phone.
Not okay, even if you have nothing to hide, private conversations with trusted friends and loved ones are not privy to your employer.

 

[Arizona Kyle]

Hmmm so anyone else think that we should do something to this Paul McMullen? like find out if he has anything that he is hiding and post them up for the world to see xD

 

[uppitycracker]

It's an outrageous demand - you wouldn't let a prospective employer come over to your house and root around in your medicine cabinet or underwear drawer, after all - and I have a hard time believing it's even legal to demand that kind of information in the first place.

Cops aren't well known for doing things legally these days, anyway. Just look around. In this country, you are free to do one thing and one thing alone: what they say. I'm sure they'll pass it off as voluntary: Don't want to fork it over? Don't apply.

 

[Something Amyss]

Um.....thats odd.

Not really. It's quite common.

Is it right? Probably not, but when you have at-will employment, you can do this sort of thing. Is it legal? See the prior statement. Is it odd? Well, maybe back in the days when Myspace was THE social network....Now it's kinda getting to be standard.

 

[gigastar]

...the words of former News of the World deputy editor Paul McMullen, who very likely summed up a widespread contemporary attitude toward privacy in his testimony at the Leveson Inquiry yesterday. "Privacy is for pedos," he said. "Fundamentally, no one else needs it."

With outrageous statements like that the only thing left to wonder is if hes entitled to a fair trail for the phone hackings hes been accused of being involved with.

And if that ever happened to me id rather lie through my teeth and get fired for it later than fork over my Steam, PSN and Escapist login informations.

And Runescape, but thats not worth bringing up directly

 

[YawningAngel]

Providing your password is a direct violation of the Facebook Terms of Service. Item 4, point 8: You will not share your password, (or in the case of developers, your secret key), let anyone else access your account, or do anything else that might jeopardize the security of your account.

Thus, the police force is asking for a person to break the terms of a previously agreed to contract. This is illegal to do, and as such cannot be used to discriminate against the person during the hiring process if they refuse to do so. Anybody who refuses to do so and subsequently does not get hired has a case against the North Carolina police department in question, and should sue.

I find it particularly ironic it's a police department making this demand.

 

[thiosk]

but consider the words of former News of the World deputy editor Paul McMullen, who very likely summed up a widespread contemporary attitude toward privacy in his testimony at the Leveson Inquiry yesterday. "Privacy is for pedos," he said. "Fundamentally, no one else needs it."

I love arguments like this. If you disagree, you're a pedo.

Lovely chap, indeed!