Facebook Access Demands?

Employers demanding access to employee’s Facebook accounts? Whether or not you have noticed, there is a growing trend where potential employers are demanding that job applicants provide passwords to their private Facebook accounts. The reason? According to employers they want to check for “embarrassing or damaging information.” As an employer, do you really want access to potentially sensitive information? Can it potentially expose the employer who seeks this access to unanticipated legal liability? Doesn’t this practice undermine the privacy expectations and the security of both the user and the user's friends?

Democratic Sens. Charles Schumer (N.Y.) and Richard Blumenthal (Conn.) on Sunday urged federal authorities to investigate whether employers who ask for their workers' Facebook passwords are breaking the law. In a statement, Schumer and Blumenthal called the practice "disturbing" and said it "represents a grave intrusion into personal privacy."

Schumer and Blumenthal asked the Justice Department to investigate whether the practice violates the Stored Communication Act or the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, which ban unauthorized access to electronic information. "Requiring applicants to provide login credentials to secure social media websites and then using those credentials to access private information stored on those sites may be unduly coercive and therefore constitute unauthorized access under both [laws]," the lawmakers wrote.

And, they didn’t stop there. They also sent a letter to the EEOC asking the agency to review the situation. The concern is that access by the potential employer would give an employer access to "private, protected information that may be impermissible to consider when making hiring decisions." Is there a potential for the private information in a Facebook account to be used to discriminate against otherwise qualified applicants?

Sen. Blumenthal announced last week that he's going to propose legislation to ban employers from requesting access to Facebook accounts as a term of employment. "With few exceptions, employers do not have the need or the right to demand access to applicants’ private, password-protected information,” Blumenthal said. “Employers have no right to ask job applicants for their house keys or to read their diaries — why should they be able to ask them for their Facebook passwords and gain unwarranted access to a trove of private information about what we like, what messages we send to people, or who we are friends with?” Schumer asked.

Facebook condemned the practice in a blog post on Friday. The company's Chief Privacy Officer, Erin Egan, issued the statement: "In recent months, we've seen a distressing increase in reports of employers or others seeking to gain inappropriate access to people's Facebook profiles or private information. The most alarming of these practices is the reported incidences of employers asking prospective or actual employees to reveal their passwords. If you are a Facebook user, you should never have to share your password, let anyone access your account, or do anything that might jeopardize the security of your account or violate the privacy of your friends. We have worked really hard at Facebook to give you the tools to control who sees your information.”

Would any rational person want to turn over his or her passwords? I believe this is a violation of Facebook’s terms of service. If an individual releases their password, it opens up their personal communications to a variety of individuals that are unknown to them.

Currently this activity is legal in most states. Let’s hope we see some change coming.