Why don't employers just break into your home and search your personal belongings? [View all]

[Hugabear]

By asking for passwords to Facebook and other social network sites, that's basically what they're doing. Even requiring you to allow them access to view your Facebook page should be a privacy violation, especially if you keep your Facebook page private to only family and close friends, like many of us do.

Employers say they need to access our social network sites in order to learn more about current and potential employees. Bullshit, I say. What did employers do prior to social networking? Sure, they could hire private investigators to follow people around - which would be expensive, and still raise privacy concerns. But what some employers are now demanding would be tantamount to actually breaking into someone's home, snooping through their photo albums, reading your mail, looking through your closets - and then doing the same for your family, friends, and acquaintances.

This type of corporate espionage needs to be nipped in the bud now. Your private life should be private - as long as it has no direct bearing on the job itself, no employer needs to know what I do in my private life. If I show up to work drunk, that's one thing - but it shouldn't be anyone's business if I decide to have a drink with friends over a weekend.