Potential employers have taken to asking job seekers for their Facebook passwords, it has been reported.
While glancing at a potential staff member’s social networking profiles is becoming ever more common, some agencies and companies are going a step further and demanding log ins to have a closer look.
An AP news report cited several examples of this occurring in the States, including one incident when the job seeker withdrew his application upon principle.
In another example, security guard Robert Collins provided his details upon request, commenting: “I needed my job to feed my family. I had to.”
Orin Kerr, a George Washington University professor of law, calls it “an egregious privacy violation” and compared it to asking for someone’s house keys.
The legality of the practice is unclear and is the focus of proposed legislation in Illinois and Maryland that could forbid public agencies from asking for access to social networks.
This month the American Civil Liberties Union stepped in after a 12-year-old girl claimed officials at her school detained her and forced her to give up her Facebook password.