Job seekers getting asked for Facebook passwords

[marmar]

SEATTLE — When Justin Bassett interviewed for a new job, he expected the usual questions about experience and references. So he was astonished when the interviewer asked for something else: his Facebook username and password.

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.

In their efforts to vet applicants, some companies and government agencies are going beyond merely glancing at a person's social networking profiles and instead asking to log in as the user to have a look around. ................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://xfinity.comcast.net/articles/news-national/20120320/US.Job.Applicants.Facebook/?cid=hero_media

[Cirque du So-What]

1. Reason #518 for why I don't do Facebook

This sort of Orwellian intrusion into private lives sets my spidey senses to tingling.

[marmar]

3. Yep. Friends always scold me for not having a Facebook page......

...... I keep sending them hyperlinks like these.

[bart95]

22. yup, yup, yup, and yup

there is a basic principle of knowing every ear your voice is speaking to, or keeping quiet

[cstanleytech]

25. Oh I have one myself.....

I just dont ever use it but I can understand why you dont and its partly why I dont use it even though I created a basic account.

[sarcasmo]

2. This is a personal privacy issue. Coporations are out of bounds aksing for you're password.

[barbtries]

4. it's against the law to ask the age of an interviewee, correct?

you see my facebook profile, you know my age. i just hope this is the exception and not the rule, because i am not playing.

[SWTORFanatic]

5. 31 years old and no facebook here. Def exception for generation Y!

[riderinthestorm]

6. Why wouldn't you just say you don't have a FB page?

[JHB]

7. If you do, they can look it up...

...so if you said you didn't, that would be lying to them, which works against getting a job from them.

[nebenaube]

10. Our names are not that unique... n/t

[gkhouston]

12. +1. I thought I had a not-very-common name until I googled it

and found that other people also have it. Sure hope potential employers don't get me mixed up with the porn star "me".

[riderinthestorm]

11. About 10 other people with my name come up in a Facebook search

And mine's not that common.

How would they know if any of the names returned were "you"? Or none of them? What are they going to do, scroll through the possibilities while you sit there in the interview? That would be pretty doubtful, especially if you just said you weren't on Facebook.

[coyote]

8. It's against Facebook's terms of service to give out one's password.

What is to prevent the employer doing anything on your facebook account once they have your login details?

[Blue_Tires]

9. If this is legal, then it should be legal for me

to request all the login info for EVERY fucking employee there...Not just facebook, but EVERYTHING they have an online account for...

After all, if I'm considering your company as a future employer, I have a full right to know any potentially pertinent info of my future co-workers...

[David__77]

13. Is it wrong to look at their public profile?

I don't think it is.

[HughBeaumont]

14. Boy, THAT'S some overreaching chutzpah, isn't it?

Motherfuckers. There's NO way I'd consent to that totalitarian crap. I'm a person, not your fucking child.

[LibDemAlways]

15. Seems to me that by giving a potential employer access to one's facebook page, that

employer is also getting access to info posted by that person's "friends." Those third parties may have posted info to be shared with certain friends only - not with nosy 3rd parties.

On reality tv those who refuse to sign the waiver have to be pixilated to protect their identities. Will FB have to introduce a method to pixilate or encrypt one's friends' postings to protect their identities from prying eyes? Seems to me there are a lot of privacy issues here.

[tammywammy]

16. I'd never give usernames and passwords over

I work for a defense contractor and have a security clearance. Not once have I ever been asked to hand over information like that. Actually if my employer asked I'd assume it's some sort of security test to see how easily employees would hand over even their own sensitive information.

[JBoy]

20. That's exactly what I was thinking.

I wouldn't want to hire someone who so willingly complied with an outrageous request.

[IDemo]

17. I take it that not being on FB isn't acceptable to these employers?

[Julian Englis]

18. kicked and recommended n/t

[RadiationTherapy]

19. No different from drug testing, really. It seems shocking now, but people will concede.

Soon it will be a matter of course. Soon it will be welfare recipients having their facebooks scanned for inappropriate spending.

[Odin2005]

21. A lot of people make "dummy" FB pages using their real names...

...and have a real FB page under a fake first name or a nickname.

[bart95]

23. a side effect of the H-1b visa program

a visa program where foreign workers are brought in, can only work for one employer, and can be deported at them employers whim

a culture that creates really timid, compliant workers who never complain about ANY abuse

and if you're a citizen and want a job, well, that's what you have to 'compete' with, if you're not 'compliant' enough, you'll quickly get replaced by someone who is, and you may even have to train them, if you want your severence at a desparate time in your life

or someone else gets/keeps the job

you'd better believe that's what could be on the mind of someone who gets asked their facebook password, and meekly gives it

[gratuitous]

26. Yep

I don't know if it's directly related to the H-1b visa program, but workers have been beaten on for years, and everybody can complete the sentence, "If you won't do what I'm telling you to do, I'll . . . " Business agents for unions continually run up against the abused employee who is genuinely surprised to find out that he or she doesn't have to jump when the boss says "Frog." I personally trace it back to the late 1970s, when drug testing was ushered in when a couple of stoned train workers derailed a train. I knew then that it would be a matter of time (and a very short time at that) before the "necessity" arose of making sure that people on the job weren't using drugs in their off time, even people you wouldn't think needed to be tested for drugs.

I think Mr. Bassett, cited in the original post, did a gutsy thing in refusing to hand over his password to the nosy interviewer. It's easy to see, however, that another job applicant would immediately comply, and that soon it will be "necessary" for employers to poke through their employees' most personal and intimate doings. The rationale this time will be that employers want to avoid liability for failing to delve deeply enough into someone's life when "all the signs were there" that Dilbert was ready or getting ready to snap.

[bart95]

24. great article '6 reasons i'm not on facebook' by Wired UK editor

http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/09/six-reasons-why-wired-uks-editor-isnt-on-facebook/

[Baitball Blogger]

27. Can the ACLU step in?

[Digit]

28. This is very timely

I replied to a job posting and yesterday received the following reply: "I have received your application for the job. Please complete some follow up questions on our company fanpage on Facebook:", and it gives the link. The link takes me to a blank sign-on page for Facebook. Although I have a basic account on Facebook, I never use it.
I would guess since I have not logged on using this computer, it only brought up a blank page.

It may be a scam...I am not sure. What I am sure about is that I have no intention of logging into my Facebook page to complete follow up questions or anything else.

[Matariki]

29. Good to read the person in the article "refused and withdrew his application"

If everyone did that it would be a non-issue. If everyone did that then even people who desperately need work wouldn't feel obligated to give in to such unreasonable demands.