The Password Protection Act of 2012 - Part 1

On April 16^th, the Maryland State Senate unanimously passed a bill titled, “Labor and Employment – Username and Password Privacy Protection and Exclusions.”  If this bill is signed into law, Maryland will become the first state to prohibit employers from requiring potential candidates to provide passwords to their Facebook accounts.   This bill will also prohibit the disclosure of any username, password or other means of accessing a personal account for all Internet accounts such as Twitter and LinkedIn.

It is becoming a common practice for potential employers to snoop around in the private lives of prospective employees, as well as existing employees.  Employers use the information to determine whether or not the candidate is worth hiring based on their “on-line” behavior.  Current employees are even being fired based on their “on-line” behavior.  For example:

• Andrew Kurtz (pierogi and Pittsburgh Pirates mascot) was fired based on his Facebook critique of the team’s management. 
• Sister Mary Jesus Galan (a nun at the Santo Domingo el Real convent in Toledo) was fired for spending too much time on Facebook. 
• Cheryl James, an Oakwood Hospital employee (Detroit), was fired from her job for posting something on her personal Facebook page.  And, the list goes on.

The Password Protection Act of 2012 has been introduced in both the House and the Senate.   The PPA would make it illegal for an employer to compel or coerce access to any online information (stored anywhere on the Internet), if that information is secured against general public access by the user.   This includes private email accounts, smartphones and photo-sharing websites.  Employers violating the PPA could be subject to financial penalties up to $10,000.00. 

This proposed new legislation was introduced in the Senate by Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), with an identical bill introduced in the House Of Representatives by Reps. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and Ed Permutter (D-Colo.).    Rep. Ed Permutter previously submitted a Facebook user protection amendment that did not pass the House back in March.

(continued in The Password Protection Act of 2012 - Part II)