It's advice Jumbos on the hunt for jobs and internships hear constantly: Clean up social media profiles and adjust privacy settings so potential employers don't come across inflammatory remarks and photos of late-night debauchery. These precautions might not help if a job applicant is asked to hand over his or her login information during the course of an interview, though.
There have several recent reports of employers asking job applicants with private Facebook profiles to turn over their login information or log in during an interview so that their full profiles can be viewed. While these practices may not constitute a full-blown privacy epidemic, they do present a worrisome trend.
In a statement on Friday, Facebook's chief privacy officer Erin Egan denounced this practice and noted that Facebook's Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, to which every Facebook user agrees, prohibits users from sharing or asking for others' passwords. Egan added that employers could be opening themselves up to potential discrimination suits if employers don't hire an applicant after seeing certain information in a private profile.
A private Facebook profile is private for a reason. If a job applicant gives out his or her login information, it not only allows employers to see private photos and wall posts, but also grants them access to personal messages and the private profiles of the applicants' friends, whose profiles might otherwise also be private. Furthermore, as Internet users often unsafely use the same username and password combination for multiple sites and services, giving out a single password opens up a potentially massive security hole.
Asking for Facebook login information is no less a violation of an applicant's privacy than asking for an email password, transcripts of personal phone calls or credit card statements. The cases of applicants being asked to log in so that an employer can take a look at a full profile is no less a privacy violation than if an applicant had to give a tour of his or her home during a job interview.
While some employers may claim that applicants are only requested and not required to share login information, there is no difference between a request and a demand when a refusal to comply will result in a black mark on one's job application.
Thankfully, lawmakers are taking action to prevent these egregious privacy violations. Sens. Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) have requested that the Department of Justice investigate if asking for login information is illegal.
The senators said they would put forth legislation explicitly prohibiting the practice in the future. Bills that would prevent employers from requesting login information from job applicants are currently moving through the Illinois and Maryland state legislatures.
The Daily fully supports legislation that protects job hunters' private social media information. With increasingly larger parts of our lives being lived online, it is crucial that privacy settings become a legally enforceable safe haven from unwanted eyes.
