When Justin Bassett interviewed for a job, there was one question that caught him by surprise: the interviewer asked for his Facebook 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.
"It's akin to requiring someone's house keys," said Orin Kerr, a George Washington University law professor and former federal prosecutor who calls it "an egregious privacy violation."
Would you share your Facebook password to get a job? Link
I would LOVE to go for a job where they demanded my password and I could be like, "Oh, Facebook? No, no, I don't even HAVE an account. Ahahaha." The blank looks I get from my friends are more than enough to make me happy about my decision to do without it. :)
That way, the candidate gets to have real time embarrassment as well as gets to see the interviewers reactions to their personal information IN PERSON! YAY
If an employer ever asked me for my Facebook password, I would think I would fail the interview if I gave it up. I might consider adding them as a friend so they could see my Facebook stuff, since I don't have anything exciting on there, but they would have to pry my password from my cold, lifeless fingers...
For everyone: it wouldn't matter if someone never used the internet. Unfortunately, they still will have a presence. I have one very good friend who shows up in searches because of participation in mundane, legal things like amateur sports. There are also the photos on the employer's Facebook page (the page is used to generate business and list promotions). Anonymity/ privacy is virtually impossible. All any of us can do is be prudent in what is displayed. It is reasonable for an employer to cast a disapproving view on posted pics of an inebriated weekend party (why advertise that you went swimming in the fountain wearing a penguin suit?). But if you sent a pic of your cousin in this scenario to your brother via the private message function, why is it the employer's business?
Back in the early '80s, I walked away from a job with the local police department because of the requisite 250 question polygraph. I told the interviewer that it was too invasive for a job that paid just above minimum wage. She said she understood and that the only people who ever accepted the position were ones wanting a career in the department and willing to do anything to get a foot in the door. Filling the position took them a long time.
Applicant foolishly disclose their social security numbers and birthdays so companies can run credit checks. What's the difference?
Equally interesting is the bit about the company that disqualifies anyone from employment for having a f/b acct. That's making a very erroneous assumption about the 'kinds' of people who use it (You don't know me, do you Fae?) and what they're using it for.
What a lot of people (and employers) don't realize is that a job interview goes both ways. Not only is the employer interviewing you, but you are interviewing the employer.
If an employer were to ask (let alone demand) something like this, it would be an immediate deal breaker.
I would let them no that, and then walk out right then and there.
These are PEOPLE not facebook accounts. If you cant live with The Way Things Are then you shouldnt even be trading. This is the 21st century, get with the program or die like the dinosaurs these companies obviously are.
I started using Facebook to keep in touch with people I knew from another site, send pictures, etc...
Today I use it mostly to keep in touch with people I used to work with at an old job. Also, I keep updated on some archaeological groups. It's how I found out about a building that fell down in Pompeii last year.
Facebook is way overused in some workplaces - I know, I had to constantly tell quite a few people to get off it and back to work in my last job.
For an employer to ask you for a password to anything is a violation of privacy. Many people list their gender, birthdates, marital status, sexual orientation, personal interests, and other private data that employers are forbidden to ask about in an interview.
If someone is that free with their Facebook password, I doubt as an employer that I would be comfortable in their protection of company information.
Besides, you can overuse any web site when you're at work. Why not ask for their eBay account? Or their WordPress login, so they can post comments under your name at Neatorama?
Here's an interesting (to me) story: About a year ago I went searching for as many old friends and coworkers as I could on Facebook as an experiment. Before I started, I made a list of who I thought would have a Facebook account and who wouldn't. And I was dead on correct.
Hint: If you can't figure out what's being bought and sold, it's you.
@ Fae: Please tell us where you where it would be an immediate disqualification, so we don't even think about applying there. Even friends and family of mine who possess government clearance at the top levels still have lives! I am a retiree from a telecommunications behemoth that lived with the day to day necessity of proprietary information that affected public safety and security. While internet usage on the job was verboten, one's personal time off premise was quite another. Your reply is beyond ridiculous! It might be quite frank, but it seemed to imply a certain pleasure in your screening process. It is rather appalling.
And NOPE.
I don't post anything on the internet that isn't for the public. But my email is different -and personal messages on Facebook that are password-protected are just as private.
I wonder what company this is? It seems like such a request would or should be illegal, particularly if it's a serious requirement for hiring.
I hate facebook and related BS site
For this reason alone, you should NEVER be expected to give up your password.
Asking for a FB password is completely wrong. First, as someone points out, it's against Facebook's own terms of service - you are simply not allowed to give your password to anyone else.
But even if you were allowed, it should not be a requirement to get a job. What anyone does in their personal life, which they choose to share with their FB friends, is THEIR business. Even if you have some stuff you wouldn't want an employer to see - well, that's exactly why you shouldn't have to show them your FB account! It's your personal, private diary, journal, call it what you will. FB is there so you can share the information you choose to share with the people you want to see it.
The 'safe' response (trying not to lose the chance of a job) is to say it's not allowed by Facebook. The better response is, of course, 'stick your job where the sun doesn't shine'!
Other ideas: if I am willing to trust you with MY password, will you trust me with the password to the company's financial systems? Or: if I was willing to hand over my password so easily, how could you ever trust me with confidential information about the company?
If they instead force you to 'friend' them so they can look at your profile, it's still not really okay, but if you really have to do it, make it clear that you will only give them access for a set number of days, after which they will be defriended again.
You could always say 'sorry I don't have a Facebook account' but if they've already found it you're out of luck.
This whole thing really is abuse of privacy and it should be stamped out.
Somebody asked me the other day if we should be checking facebook pages of applicants that apply to work in my workplace. I can't see any benefit. I don't want a team of people just like me or like everybody else here. I want a group of people with different outlooks, views and experiences bringing their own perspectives and learning to my team, not clones or people with perfect pasts....(or sneaky enough to create one that they think I want to see).
The company he was interviewing for is clearly disreputable. I work for a web dev compnay, and know many people who work in IT and specifically in web-oriented jobs, and no employer has ever, ever, ever asked for passwords to their personal pages.
I don't care how plum the job market gets for employers, if they're asking for access to your personal information before they've even decided to hire you, there's something super fishy going on there.
So when I first encountered this controversy, I figured maybe employers didn't understand how Facebook worked, but maybe its me. Do they really demand control over your site, or do they just want to monitor what you post? If that's it, sure, look at my site, but someone should explain that you don't need a password fr that, just an account and maybe a friend link.
If an employer demanded control over a site I owned, that would be fighting time. But if I were desperate for a job, I might delete the site.