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Should Employers Be Allowed to Ask For Your Facebook Password?

Pros and cons of invasive background checks

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by Mary Noble

Senior Editor t

In Maryland, Robert Collins was asked for his Facebook password when he re-applied for his old post as a corrections officer. He said he felt "forced" to give up the password, and "embarrassed and violated" by having his employers trawl through his Facebook page.

But a spokesman from the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services defended their habit of demanding passwords from job applicants. He said that scrutinizing employees' Facebook pages was a way to avoid employing people with gang affiliations as law enforcers. Out of 2,700 MD corrections dept. job applicants last year, seven were rejected because of their social media accounts.

Maryland could become the first state to ban employers from asking for their employees' Facebook passwords. The new law just needs to be signed by MD Gov. Martin O'Malley. After reports of Facebook-password requests during job interviews earlier this year, several Democratic Senators have asked Attorney General Eric Holder to determine whether it's constitutional for employers to demand login details.

The Maryland Chamber of Commerce also wants to keep their ability to check employees Facebook pages. They say it helps employers to investigate charges of bad behavior, for instance, sexual harassment cases.

Should your employer have the right to ask for your Facebook password? Or should there be a law against this?

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Comments (view in Forum)

  • BigPoppaPhat
    !
    I'd just tell them I don't have a Facebook account or make a second one they can have access to if it has to be done. But I feel this is going too far and a violation of privacy.
  • ir0nw0lfe
    !
    I think they can have access to anything that you post which anyone else van view. If you post pictures of your drunken , naked misadventures in a donkey bar for the world to see, then the company should be allowed to consider your lack of judgement as a factor of employment. However posts made as just for friends and restricted ad private so be off limits.
  • MrGrey
    !
    They should have access to social networks run on a companies servers or their cloud server.

    Those run on facebooks servers and others like them, should be off limits.
  • Elise
    !
    No. I don't. It's a social network, not a professional one. Perhaps, if the job requires a security clearance, that request might be justified.
  • u
    classychazy
    !
    What I post on facebook is not my employers business! I tell ya it really burns my ass that everyone has their nose in everyone else's business today. What I talk or post to my chosen friends are my business not those I work for or I would add them as my friend!
  • that1chick
    !
    NO, even when you sign up for such websites they tell you DO NOT SHARE YOUR PASSWORD. If asked I would have to say I have a contractual obligation to not give it out! Surely they can respect your dedication to upholding your end of a legally binding agreement.