The Dangerous Business of Facebook Access

[3/24 Update]

*After having written about this earlier this week, the story seems to have exploded. Facebook even came out with a statement which effectively said to employers–ask for employee–or potential employee password or login info–you might just get your ass sued! Score one for Facebook!  More info on that story over at CNET, and also here, here and here at the Telegraph, as now even Europeans are worrying about blowback from these practices. You can find the Facebook statement here.*

Just when you think the stories about Facebook can’t get more crazy–ok, I’m sure they will get a lot crazier in the years head–another story blows the last insane story out of the water. But I think this one tops them all. Imagine you are in sitting at a desk interviewing for a job, and the following happens:

“Justin Bassett, a New York City statistician, had just finished answering a few character questions when the interviewer turned to her computer to search for his Facebook page. But she couldn’t see his private profile. She turned back and asked him to hand over his login information.

Bassett refused and withdrew his application, saying he didn’t want to work for a company that would seek such personal information. But as the job market steadily improves, other job candidates are confronting the same question from prospective employers, and some of them cannot afford to say no.”

To be honest, I’m not sure which is more troubling: the fact that an employer would have the balls to ask someone for their personal Facebook login, or the face that Business Week can argue without even a hint of irony that this is not only ok, but that we should just accept it–“some of them cannot afford to say no.” Since when is it ok for a company to ask a prospective employer for their personal, private life to be turned over for the pleasure of their perusal? This is no different than an employer asking someone to hand over their personal journal so they can read through it and make sure they like the person’s personality or approve of their private life. I think the GW law prof hit the nail on the head with his response to this:

“It’s akin to requiring someone’s house keys,” said Orin Kerr, a George Washington University law professor and former federal prosecutor who calls it “an egregious privacy violation.”

Although I would add, this is not akin, this is pretty much the same thing in terms of a person’s social media personal life, and increasingly central part of many people–especially young people’s–life. If the Business Week story is any indication, this is a deeply disturbing trend that seems to be growing.

“Companies that don’t ask for passwords have taken other steps — such as asking applicants to friend human resource managers or to log in to a company computer during an interview. Once employed, some workers have been required to sign non-disparagement agreements that ban them from talking negatively about an employer on social media…Until last year, the city of Bozeman, Mont., had a long-standing policy of asking job applicants for passwords to their email addresses, social-networking websites and other online accounts.”

No f-ing way. Even if I don’t have anything “objectionable” or otherwise “sensitive” about my life on Facebook, there is no way in hell–or any other similarly unpleasant place–that I would offer up, or even consider offering up, my info for such a ridiculous practice. Perhaps it’s just me, but it seems like this is a perfect example where we need a strong federal law making it illegal–yet that’s right not legally possible–for anyone, even the CIA or FBI, to require people to give up their private login or any access to social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, or whatever. I don’t care who you are, my personal business is just that, mine and personal.

Until next time…where’s my Libertarian outrage!