What Do You Think? Might Employers Start Asking Job Applicants for Facebook Passwords? [AOL Jobs]

By on December 2, 2011 in Article

Without a doubt, social media plays a huge role in the job search today.

Check out: 4 Social Media Tasks for the New Job Seeker

When used the right way, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn can be valuable tools that can help you connect, talk, and learn from colleagues, mentors, and employers in your chosen industry.

You would share, Tweet, and link for an employer, but would you give them your Facebook password, if they asked? It’s not as absurd as you might think.

Check out: New NLRB Case Affirms: You Can’t Fire Facebook Gripers

David Schepp of AOL Jobs explores this growing phenomenon. Schepp writes:

“An incident in the U.S., in which a job seeker was asked to disclose passwords for his Facebook, MySpace and other social media sites, has raised questions about how much access hiring companies should have access to.

Employers ability to access individuals’ posts, photos and other personal information is a worrying new precedent, suggests a report in London’s Daily Mirror newspaper

A recent survey in the U.K. showed that 42 percent of British students admitted to worry they’ve place on social-media sites could harm their employment chances, the Mirror reports…”

Read the rest at AOL Jobs!

What do you think? Should an employer have the right to ask job applicants for Facebook passwords or other social media info? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

About Heather R. Huhman

Heather R. Huhman is the Career & Recruiting Advisor for Cachinko. She is also the founder & president of Come Recommended, the author of Lies, Damned Lies & Internships: The Truth About Getting from Classroom to Cubicle (2011), #ENTRYLEVELtweet: Taking Your Career from Classroom to Cubicle (2010), and writes career and recruiting advice for numerous outlets.
View all posts by Heather R. Huhman →

Comment with Facebook

  • http://twitter.com/HashTagRon Ron Morgan

    #Ron dislikes this.

    This is not complicated. The fact that it is happening does not make it any less absurd, or any more acceptable. Social media are valuable tools for employers to investigate the way a potential hire PUBLICIZES himself. It takes creativity and ingenuity for an employer to locate an applicants profile(s), explore what is publicly available, friend/follow/connect with them, and accurately evaluate how much of what type of information the individual releases to the general public. Although I don’t see asking for profile URLs as out-of-line, giving your passwords as well is like the difference between:

    - Providing a mailing address vs. handing over a copy of mailbox keys
    - Giving a residence address vs. requesting a copy of apartment keys
    - Agreeing to a credit check vs. giving them your bank card
    - Identifying your gender vs. letting them inspect your genitalia

    In my humble opinion, this is laziness and invasiveness on the employer’s part. If your profile is secure and private, an employer should respect your ability and foresight to block public access. If an employer doesn’t have the tools or time to connect with an applicant whose profile is private or blocked, then they have no place for social media searches in their hiring processes.

    The questions just go on and on: Where does my password go? Is it stored? Is it destroyed once I’m accepted/denied? If hired, must I notify my work of password changes? Will I be reprimanded for not reporting a password change? Will I be notified every time my password is used to access my account? What permission am I giving this company to DO on my account once logged in? Can the government legally request these passwords? Can the password list be hacked/stolen?

    Frankly, if an application required my Social Media passwords, I would throw the application away. If required to give my password out during an interview, I would leave on the spot.

    Yes, it IS absurd.

    @HashTagRon

Comments Closed