California Bans Social Snooping

[TheMann]

Wow. My state enacted a law that isn't a complete embarrassment that incurs the ire and mockery of the rest of the nation? And it protects the privacy of citizens? And frikkin' Moonbeam actually signed this thing? What the hell happened? Have benevolent aliens used a mind control beam on our asshole legislators? Did I fall through a dimensional rift, and am now in Bizarro-California? Has the apocalypse drawn nigh and I must repent my sins? (If this is the case, I'm in deep shit.) Have the stars finally aligned and the Great Old Ones will soon arise from their slumber? This is just weird, but at least weird=good this time.

You, as a knowledgeable gamer, may be surprised to learn that Bill 1349 was authored by none other than Senator Leland Yee [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/tag/leland%20yee?from_search=1], the long-serving California legislator who helped enshrine First Amendment protections for videogames by doggedly trying to strip them away.

Oh-ho-ho, somebody's trying to save their political career. Now this makes a teensy-weensy more sense. Well, it's out of my hands, the asswipe isn't from my district, but at least no prospective employers will be looking at my Facebook page. Not that anyone does anyway.

...have anybody else noticed that the image on the main page is the flag of the NCR from Fallout?

*sigh* I think someone already mentioned this but no, that's the real flag of the State of California. [http://www.50states.com/flag/caflag.htm#.UGZ8bFGk-Sp]
I've never played Fallout but I have (ugh, unfortunately) lived here most of my life. Trust me on this one.

 

[Scarecrow]

Wow. My state enacted a law that isn't a complete embarrassment that incurs the ire and mockery of the rest of the nation? And it protects the privacy of citizens? And frikkin' Moonbeam actually signed this thing? What the hell happened? Have benevolent aliens used a mind control beam on our asshole legislators? Did I fall through a dimensional rift, and am now in Bizarro-California? Has the apocalypse drawn nigh and I must repent my sins? (If this is the case, I'm in deep shit.) Have the stars finally aligned and the Great Old Ones will soon arise from their slumber? This is just weird, but at least weird=good this time.

You, as a knowledgeable gamer, may be surprised to learn that Bill 1349 was authored by none other than Senator Leland Yee [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/tag/leland%20yee?from_search=1], the long-serving California legislator who helped enshrine First Amendment protections for videogames by doggedly trying to strip them away.

Oh-ho-ho, somebody's trying to save their political career. Now this makes a teensy-weensy more sense. Well, it's out of my hands, the asswipe isn't from my district, but at least no prospective employers will be looking at my Facebook page. Not that anyone does anyway.

...have anybody else noticed that the image on the main page is the flag of the NCR from Fallout?

*sigh* I think someone already mentioned this but no, that's the real flag of the State of California. [http://www.50states.com/flag/caflag.htm#.UGZ8bFGk-Sp]
I've never played Fallout but I have (ugh, unfortunately) lived here most of my life. Trust me on this one.

No, seriously...look. Main page, on the news list below the Doctor Who page link.

 

[Risingblade]

The awkward moment when you don't even know the name of your own governor >_>

I bet you knew the one before him

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

...have anybody else noticed that the image on the main page is the flag of the NCR from Fallout?

*sigh* I think someone already mentioned this but no, that's the real flag of the State of California. [http://www.50states.com/flag/caflag.htm#.UGZ8bFGk-Sp]
I've never played Fallout but I have (ugh, unfortunately) lived here most of my life. Trust me on this one.

He is talking about the image on the main page news link, not the article page.

 

[TheMann]

...have anybody else noticed that the image on the main page is the flag of the NCR from Fallout?

*sigh* I think someone already mentioned this but no, that's the real flag of the State of California. [http://www.50states.com/flag/caflag.htm#.UGZ8bFGk-Sp]
I've never played Fallout but I have (ugh, unfortunately) lived here most of my life. Trust me on this one.

No, seriously...look. Main page, on the news list below the Doctor Who page link.

Oh shit, you're right. Well, apologies then. I only looked at the photo on the article, I didn't even glance at the main page. Well, that's mildly amusing.

 

[Scarecrow]

...have anybody else noticed that the image on the main page is the flag of the NCR from Fallout?

*sigh* I think someone already mentioned this but no, that's the real flag of the State of California. [http://www.50states.com/flag/caflag.htm#.UGZ8bFGk-Sp]
I've never played Fallout but I have (ugh, unfortunately) lived here most of my life. Trust me on this one.

He is talking about the image on the main page news link, not the article page.

Thanks for being less lazy than I and getting the image.

Captcha: I am captcha!

Yes...yes you are.

...have anybody else noticed that the image on the main page is the flag of the NCR from Fallout?

*sigh* I think someone already mentioned this but no, that's the real flag of the State of California. [http://www.50states.com/flag/caflag.htm#.UGZ8bFGk-Sp]
I've never played Fallout but I have (ugh, unfortunately) lived here most of my life. Trust me on this one.

No, seriously...look. Main page, on the news list below the Doctor Who page link.

Oh shit, you're right. Well, apologies then. I only looked at the photo on the article, I didn't even glance at the main page. Well, that's mildly amusing.

Don't worry about it. I bet the NCR doesn't have leaders as good as this guy.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

No-one acts with the utmost integrity at all times, and employers seem to live a fantasy world where they can expect that to be the case. The more access employers have to your social life, the easier it is for them to fire you. It's bad enough when they have to hear about it through other sources, it's still none of their business and still shouldn't be firing material, but it is.

Not to mention that you are in fact not allowed by Facebook to divulge your password in the terms of use, or that many people use one or a few passwords for many things. But at least if it's just 'friending', you can put them on the restricted list and they'll never see anything they shouldn't. ^^

 

[Rellik San]

Not to mention that you are in fact not allowed by Facebook to divulge your password in the terms of use, or that many people use one or a few passwords for many things. But at least if it's just 'friending', you can put them on the restricted list and they'll never see anything they shouldn't. ^^

Until they demand to be on the unrestricted list because you're hiding something which means that they'll call you in to an unofficial meeting and heavily imply but not explicitly say that you're fired unless they can see all your shenanigans.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

I find it disturbing that they needed a law for this in the first place. Your social media profile is your personal thing. Because of that it should be protected by The Constitution!

 

[Macgyvercas]

Wait wait wait...California (and Leeland Yee in particular) actually did something good for once?!

I am in shock. I mean, I want to say good on the man, but after Brown vs EMA, I don't know if I can. (Yes, I know we won, but still)

 

[Hawk of Battle]

Wouldn't people just say they don't have/use social media and if they still demand you give them an account name and password, just set up a second account under the same name and with a completely new password. Let them have that instead if they want to monitor an empty, contact-less page with your name on it.

Out-loophole the loophole people.

 

[webkilla]

I can't imagine ever willingly working for an employer that wants to monitor my social media activity

...mainly because of all the brony tumblrs I'm following - I don't need an employer knowing what flavor of ponies I like to look at

 

[Hitchmeister]

We dump on him when he does wrong, so I suppose it's only fair to give him his propers when he gets it right. So thank you, Senator Yee. You done good.

Now maybe he learned something during the debate over his earlier efforts and that's why he's making better choices now. Or maybe his two headed coin just came up on the un-scarred side this time.

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

It's not really a loophole. There's a lot of crap you can legally be fired for in the 48 (or is it 49) "At Will" employment states.

48, Alaska and Hawaii are the other two.

OT: I do wish we had a "Right to Privacy Amendment" added to the constitution, instead of just relying on a combination of some of the other parts of the texts to give us a phesudo right.

 

[DragonStorm247]

I'm ... pleasantly flabbergasted.

We dump on him when he does wrong, so I suppose it's only fair to give him his propers when he gets it right. So thank you, Senator Yee. You done good.
Permalink

I'm proud of you Escapist. Really.

 

[ReinWeisserRitter]

I now wonder how an employer would react when I told them I don't use any social networks whatsoever.

That said, it's pathetic that such monitoring even exists in the first place. It's disgusting the lengths people in authority are going to to spy on other people in case they do something they don't like.

 

[Spartan448]

It's a good move, and certainly shows that the world may be maturing to the technological age, but still....

Fuck NCR.

 

[Darth_Payn]

Thank you, sir, now we need to convince the rest of the world's government to pass a law like this.

This almost makes me want to move to California.

Now if we could get this passed nationally...

Screw that. We need to get this passed into international law.

It's astoundingly dumb that it's not a federal law already, or even plain common sense, to not ask for social networking passwords. Can they still google us to find any misdeeds?

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Considering that I don't have any accounts on any social networking sites, this does not affect me in the slightest. That being said, I've always thought that the practice of checking people's facebook and other such things during the hiring processes was asinine, and I'm glad that it's illegal now in California. That's actually one of the things that was preventing me from getting a facebook account in the first place (not that that is going to change any time soon with this law in place anyway).

 

[vxicepickxv]

Thank you, sir, now we need to convince the rest of the world's government to pass a law like this.

This almost makes me want to move to California.

Now if we could get this passed nationally...

Screw that. We need to get this passed into international law.

It's astoundingly dumb that it's not a federal law already, or even plain common sense, to not ask for social networking passwords. Can they still google us to find any misdeeds?

Given that such a minor search won't find me without my middle name, I'd be more worried if they used a site like pipl.com to find info on me.

It's pretty hard to find someone when they share a name with one of the lead engineers at GM.