No Employers No! |

On 06^th March 2012, Bob Sullivan from the Red Tape Chronicles of MSNBC.com reported some prospective employers “are demanding full access from job applicants and student athletes.” Report further says “job seekers have been asked during interviews to log into their accounts and let an interviewer watch while the potential employee clicks through wall posts, photos and anything else that might be found behind the privacy wall.”

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Shocked are you? Well in 2011 there were reports the candidates were asked to surrender their user names and passwords until a formal complaint stopped the practice. Now as much as we agree Facebook is our private domain, it is likely many of us will share the logins when we ‘want’ the job. But should we have to? Is it even legal to ask for our private logins for these social networks that have nothing to do with our job prospects? The law says NO!

But before you press the panic button, relax, the Facebook company has come out in open to say they “will fight to stop the employers from requesting access to their potential employees’ otherwise private accounts” reports Mashable. Facebook’s Privacy Officer – Erin Egan made this announcement on 23^rd March 2012. Egan wrote on the Facebook Privacy blog “This practice undermines the privacy expectations and the security of both the user and the user’s friends. It also potentially exposes the employer who seeks this access to unanticipated legal liability.”

The biggest question is – WHY would the employers even want access to your private social network logins? What you post on your Facebook, Twitter etc. in your personal time and life is your private time and content and has nothing to do with your job, then why would a prospective employer even want access to that information? In Pre-Facebook times, the employers could still not ask for what you did on your weekend or who you are dating or if you had sex, then how can they ask you to share your Facebook login now which would possibly have same information but is again irrelevant and way too private for an employer to ever want to know. It is your PRIVATE & PERSONAL time after all.

Does getting employed means you will need to give your house keys, your ATM Card PIN number, details your partner’s preferred acts in bedroom to the employer before you can be selected? NO, then how can an employer even fathom asking for social network login details where you can find similar if not same information posted that is only meant to be shared with trusted friends? Some will say ‘Whatever you post on social networks is public anyway’ – we’ll say WRONG. These networks allow you to configure every single post (at least they do now after a huge privacy furor in past couple of years) and select who will be the audience who can see this. A huge number of users have not only learnt how to make their profiles private but also are very careful what they post, and who sees it. It is a personal network after all, no matter how social it maybe.

Facebook has been in hot waters quite a lot because of often changing settings and complicated privacy setup, but off late they have made it easier to setup your privacy settings in fast and easy steps. Not only that, as previously mentioned now with every single post you can decide who sees your posts and who doesn’t. This time, Facebook has come out and issued a statement suggesting it will draw a line as to how much and how the privacy of a user will be protected from the prospective employers and even if that requires legal action, Facebook will take one. Facebook said “We’ll take action to protect the privacy of our users, whether by engaging policymakers or where appropriate, by initiating a legal action, including by shutting down applications that abuse their privileges.” You GO Facebook! Well done we say!

Next time you are asked by an employer to share your login details, stand up and say NO. If an employer wants access to your social network, there is a high chance the workplace will be negative, incapable of trusting their employees at all and the work culture will be toxic. It is your cue to get alerted and walk out of the building of that employer as fast as you can. You should never have to share your personal logins no matter what, unless required by authorities and if you were a suspect of a crime, that too with proper warrant. And if you are not subject of a criminal or civil offense and the law does not require you to share this information, no one should and no one can ask for this information and saying NO is the first step to protecting your privacy and saving yourself from being employed at a company where individual privacy comes last.

Your privacy is YOUR privacy and what you share about your personal life is YOUR decision. If you are being forced to share this so you can be given a job, listen to the alarm bells. It probably is not the brand and company you want to be working with. Such privacy invasion can lead to discrimination, unfair judgment and employment practices and illegal access in your private life to an employer. You wouldn’t want that, would you?