Don't Let Employers Demand Facebook Logins!
- by: C. Wolverton
- recipient: United States Legislators
As job openings become more competitive, employers are finding new ways to narrow down applicants. According to an in-depth report from MSNBC, numerous U.S. employers have demanded prospective employees to surrender their Facebook usernames and passwords if they wished to be considered for a position.
Many depend on Facebook to keep up with friends and family, share personal photos, read breaking news, promote their art and writing, and communicate with other members of their clubs and religious groups. While public profiles are fair game, most restrict their profiles so that only friends can see personal information. Personal messages are only accessible with a password, and are as private as emails and phone conversations.
State and Federal laws make it illegal to ask an interviewee questions about his or her religious, political or club affiliations, nationality, family history, relationship status or age. With a password, employers can easily find out or assume all of this information through Facebook photos, "likes," groups, friends and personal messages.
Demanding passwords for any social networking or email account as a requirement to be considered for a job is exploitative and a serious invasion of privacy. Please sign the petition to convince U.S. legislators to ban the practice.
As job openings become more competitive, employers are finding new ways to narrow down applicants. According to an in-depth report from MSNBC, numerous U.S. employers have demanded prospective employees to surrender their Facebook usernames and passwords if they wished to be considered for a position. We, the undersigned, are concerned with this practice and believe it to be a violation of established hiring laws.
Many depend on Facebook to keep up with friends and family, share personal photos, read breaking news, promote their art and writing, and communicate with other members of their clubs and religious groups. While public profiles are fair game, most restrict their profiles so that only friends can see personal information. Personal messages are only accessible with a password, and are as private as emails and phone conversations.
State and Federal laws make it illegal to ask an interviewee questions about his or her religious, political or club affiliations, nationality, family history, relationship status or age. With a password, employers can easily find out or assume all of this information through Facebook photos, "likes," groups, friends and personal messages.
Demanding passwords for any social networking or email account as a requirement to be considered for a job is exploitative and a serious invasion of privacy. Please create legislation to ban the practice. Thank you for taking the time to read and consider our petition.
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