Govt. Agencies, Colleges Demand Applicants' Facebook Passwords

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I thought they put a stop to all this crap last year? If you want to see all my stupid Facebook stuff, just send me a friend request or come over for dinner. :rolleyes:

In Maryland, job seekers applying to the state's Department of Corrections have been asked during interviews to log into their accounts and let an interviewer watch while the potential employee clicks through wall posts, friends, photos and anything else that might be found behind the privacy wall.
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normally I'd throw out a un-serious comment and just kid around. But c'mon! This gets me hot. What right does the MD Dept. of Corr. think they have in asking for that information! I understand how they want to see if the applicant is associated with an inmate (flashes of Prison Break, S1, come to mind) but there are other ways to obtain that information. As a manager, I can't ask prospective employees about anything that isn't directly related to their job function. This is a gross abuse of HR...

<folds up soap box and walks away, shaking head> Angry!
 
I wonder if an applicant claims to not have a FB account they suspect lying and toss the candidate? The gods know I'll never have a FB account...
 
Pezzy said:
I wonder if an applicant claims to not have a FB account they suspect lying and toss the candidate? The gods know I'll never have a FB account...
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Seriously. Even ignoring the ridiculous privacy issue,what about people who simply don't have/want a facebook account? One certainly shouldn't be required to have a facebook account to get a job, let alone be required to let a potential employer dig through it.
 
Pezzy said:
I wonder if an applicant claims to not have a FB account they suspect lying and toss the candidate? The gods know I'll never have a FB account...
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I'm sure this will happen, since they are obviously FB obsessed.
Facebook checkbox is not checked, so this must be an incomplete interview, or someone is tryign to hide something.
 
This might be interesting. I can just imagine that an individual might actually be dismissed in the interview for not having a Facebook profile, for the integrity of the said individual would be found dubious...

It's rather effective in screening come to think of it.
 
Tell them to fuck off. Who wants to work for a place like that anyways?
 
I don't have a FB account but I might as well start and pad it with a lot of good, clean, 1940s/1950s people with high morals, clean language, and such. Isn't that what they're pushing us to do? Pad your resume... I mean, pad your FB account?
 
Facebook TOS said:
You will not share your password ... let anyone else access your account or do anything else that might jeopardize the security of your account.
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I wonder how this will eventually turn out.
 
I wouldn't take the job. I would spit in their face on the way out too. Fuck bringing my hard work to their job and not being able to live a personal life in the mean time :rolleyes:

Regardless of how innocent or inappropriate my Facebook may or may not be.
 
awsiemieniec said:
As a manager, I can't ask prospective employees about anything that isn't directly related to their job function. This is a gross abuse of HR...
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Some careers are a way of life (think law enforcement for example), not just a 9 to 5 that you can leave at the office and be yourself on your off time. These careers require a person to represent the organization they work for 24/7 in everything they do, including their very private lives. It's understandable that the vetting process for prospective inductees to these organizations might require a level of transparency inordinate in a lot of other places. From the HR perspective, you've chosen to make the information at least partially public even if it's behind a privacy settings wall. That's reason enough to ask for this. They already ask you about your personal secrets during the hiring process and expect you to be completely honest. This is just the natural progression. For them to hire you requires that you keep no potentially embarrassing secrets hidden that another person may already be aware of.

Facebook made gathering this information a lot easier, and I can't really blame them for going after it even as uncomfortable as it may be to a lot of people.
 
Rizen said:
Tell them to fuck off. Who wants to work for a place like that anyways?
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I sympathize with this sentiment, but at the same time, if you've lost your job, and your unemployment insurance has run out, and the kids need new shoes... :(
 
Anybody notice the increasing simularities of today
and
Pre ww2?:confused:
 
Not exactly a great idea. I could easily make a dummy account and never use it. Who says it's gotta be the one I actively use anyway?
 
This is completely ridiculous. I understand background checks have to be thorough, but you're not going to find out more about a person from their FB page than you would from a standard government check.

I would just say fuck it.
 
This reminds me of the movie "enemy of the state" when wil smith asks someone "do you masturbate in the shower? the guy was shocked, before he could get out a response wil smith "thats non of my F$#!!%^ business.


Likewise, i dont think employers, strangers, or anyone has the right to our private information. I actually deleted my facebook because im really sick of people looking me up and cyber stalking me.

My wife will spend hours on facebook looking at peoples posts, friends list, their posts, its really creepy if you ask me.
 
OPUS1 said:
Anybody notice the increasing simularities of today
and
Pre ww2?:confused:
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I'm sure a lot of conspiracy nuts have.

Some people understand that the hiring process for some agencies and organizations has always been intense and that even 50 years ago you would have been asked to admit to and produce evidence of all sorts of potentially embarrassing and/or incriminating personal information when trying to land a job at some of these places. Asking for your facebook password is small potatoes when you're already giving up copies of tax returns, bank and credit card statements, credit reports, receipts, court transcripts, medical records and bills, personal letters and voice mails, emails accounts, forums accounts and all sorts of other shit most people will never have to worry about when applying for a job. Not to mention undergoing polygraph examination on all of that and in some cases giving sworn testimony to the veracity of what you've told them under penalty of law.
 
So, you can't ask about an applicants relationship status, religion, etc., and you can't base your decision around age, sex, etc.., but when it comes to Facebook, you can be thrown out if you don't give it up? Sounds pretty thought out.




Hamish Campbell said:
Some careers are a way of life (think law enforcement for example), not just a 9 to 5 that you can leave at the office and be yourself on your off time. These careers require a person to represent the organization they work for 24/7 in everything they do, including their very private lives. It's understandable that the vetting process for prospective inductees to these organizations might require a level of transparency inordinate in a lot of other places. From the HR perspective, you've chosen to make the information at least partially public even if it's behind a privacy settings wall. That's reason enough to ask for this. They already ask you about your personal secrets during the hiring process and expect you to be completely honest. This is just the natural progression. For them to hire you requires that you keep no potentially embarrassing secrets hidden that another person may already be aware of.

Facebook made gathering this information a lot easier, and I can't really blame them for going after it even as uncomfortable as it may be to a lot of people.
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Pezzy said:
I wonder if an applicant claims to not have a FB account they suspect lying and toss the candidate? The gods know I'll never have a FB account...
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While submitting to a Facebook review is voluntary, virtually all applicants agree to it out of a desire to score well in the interview, according Maryland ACLU legislative director Melissa Coretz Goemann.
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By the sounds of it, not having a Facebook account seems like it would count against you in the interview. And since you aren't in the union yet you have no right or protection to see your interview scores and how they compared against other candidates to see if that was in fact the tipping point.

I know I'd never get a job myself if that was the case because I'd write very boldly
1: I don't have a facebook account
2: Even if I did I wouldn't give it to you
3: Reasonable expectations of privacy are not criminal, and a constitutional right"
 
buttons said:
My wife will spend hours on facebook looking at peoples posts, friends list, their posts, its really creepy if you ask me.
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My mother reads all those celebrity gossip magazines. At least your wife potentially may know these people.
 
Ur_Mom said:
So, you can't ask about an applicants relationship status, religion, etc., and you can't base your decision around age, sex, etc.., but when it comes to Facebook, you can be thrown out if you don't give it up? Sounds pretty thought out.
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The only one of those things that a decision to hire can't be based on is religion because it's a constitutionally protected status. All the rest can come into play for some organizations where loopholes are written into the law.

Reminder: we're not talking about regular companies here. If I were applying to McDonald's and they asked for my Facebook password I'd tell them to get fucked. If I'm being pre-screened for employment with a federal enforcement agency, you can bet your ass I'd give it to them for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that I have nothing "bad" to hide and I'd want them to know that right off the bat.

Is that fair? Maybe not, but you (unofficially in some cases) lose your expectation to personal privacy as soon as you take the job, so you had better be able to deal with that.
 
It would seem to me this actually might be a violation of law.

There are many questions you can not legally ask in an interview (marital status, whether or not the applicant has kids, age, nationality (you can ask if a U.S. citizen, or if legally able to work in U.S.), etc.

See this list

Seeing that a lot of this information is readily available or able to be gained from Facebook account access, it would seem asking for someone's Facebook account is the same as indirectly asking for this information, and thus should be illegal..
 
Who exists to serve whom? Who created whom?

Where do your rights originate?

Why is the cart pulling the horse?
 
there is a good deal of corruption in MD corrections (guards taking payoffs and smuggling stuff) so I can kind of underdstand they are trying to ensure new hires dont have existing connections and dealings with some of the people who they are locking up...but this isnt the way to glean that information
 
In my current job, I can go to Mexico but not Baja, California. :) BTW, what is this FaceBook you speak of? I've been told I have a bad attitude but, I've never had any problem getting security clearances.

I worked at a job where everyone had their computer usage audited twice a year and people were seriously sweating it. I told them to feel free any time they felt like it to audit away. I never even went to a news site online while working for them let alone, a social site.
 
Steve, your thread title is misleading.

The article even states that it is against FB's ToS to share your password.

Previously, applicants were asked to surrender their user name and password, but a complaint from the ACLU stopped that practice last year.
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MD DoC is having them log in so the interviewer can "shoulder surf" the applicant's protected areas.

College athletic programs are not requiring your FB password, but that you "friend" a coach so they can have access to more of your personal info.

Hopefully, it won't hurt any future job hunting prospects for me when I honestly tell them I don't have a FB account.
 
Lethal said:
Hopefully, it won't hurt any future job hunting prospects for me when I honestly tell them I don't have a FB account.
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It was out of this line of thinking that I decided to make my own Facebook account that goes unused save for Disqus comments and whatnot. It is clear that it has become an assumption for an individual would have a Facebook account, and a denial of this assumption would be treated with suspicion by a perspective employer. This means that one might as well as to have a Facebook account (and do nothing at all with it) and leave the intrigues to the interviewer than to let them get satisfaction from their paranoia.
 
Simple - if you really need the job, delete your facebook. If they ask, tell them you deleted your facebook. If they don't give you the job, EO the fuck out of them.

What a stupid policy.
 
Hamish Campbell said:
I'm sure a lot of conspiracy nuts have.

Some people understand that the hiring process for some agencies and organizations has always been intense and that even 50 years ago you would have been asked to admit to and produce evidence of all sorts of potentially embarrassing and/or incriminating personal information when trying to land a job at some of these places. Asking for your facebook password is small potatoes when you're already giving up copies of tax returns, bank and credit card statements, credit reports, receipts, court transcripts, medical records and bills, personal letters and voice mails, emails accounts, forums accounts and all sorts of other shit most people will never have to worry about when applying for a job. Not to mention undergoing polygraph examination on all of that and in some cases giving sworn testimony to the veracity of what you've told them under penalty of law.
Click to expand...

The irony here, is they certainly didn't ask for my facebook password when they did my clearance investigation. Tax statements, credit checks, actually make a great deal of sense. As does a polygraph. What information could you possibly get from facebook that you couldn't get from that kind of investigation that could possibly be relevant?

If corrections officers are being required to turn over all that extra information, seems like you guys need to get a better union.
 
Guard: But my FaceBook belongs to me! I shouldn't have to show it to you just to apply for a job!
Warden: What we have here is a failure to communicate. You will reveal your FaceBook password or, you will force me to drop you in a hole so dark, it will force you mere mortals to weep before me and bow down in awe of my infinite power!
 
So if I tell them, completely truthfully, that I do not and have not had a facebook account?

They won't believe me?

Or what?
 
AaronP said:
Isn't this what a background check is for?
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They can check my background all they want, but not facebook! If I friend them, so be it, otherwise it's invasion of privacy.

What if they required you to escort them though your house and they can look in every drawer, toilet, whatever. If they find some prescription pills for High BP, they deny you a job because of your health?

You have more right with your health history than they say you do with facebook.

Sue them All, fooking komies!
 
Well, no one with brains is going to use their real name for their facebook acct. The FBI might just be verifying that before they mistakenly hire someone stupid.
 
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