Want a job? Hand over your Facebook credentials
Mikey 6 comments
File this one under dumb-arsery if you please. If you're applying for a job with the City of Bozeman, they want to make sure you're a person of good character. No problem so far, but apparently your references and past good work aren't enough, because the city wants you to include your usernames and passwords of any social networking accounts you have. Dead - set serious.
From the application form:
"Please list any and all, current personal or business websites, web pages or memberships on any Internet-based chat rooms, social clubs or forums, to include, but not limited to: Facebook, Google, Yahoo, YouTube.com, MySpace, etc."
...followed by 3 lines where the applicant is asked to provide their usernames and passwords.
Attorney Greg Sullivan says the site "takes privacy rights very seriously", but somehow I think he doesn't understand what privacy actually means. Said Sullivan:
"...we do those types of investigations to make sure the people that we hire have the highest moral character and are a good fit for the City"
Sullivan doesn't sound like a very good lawyer. Any first year law student would know - after 15 minutes of research - that most social networking sites including Facebook prohibit the sharing of passwords.
If this sort of crap starts happening in Australia, I'm moving to Mexico.
Source.
Blatant douchebaggery if I ever saw it.
Jim
Saturday 20th June 2009 | 07:48 AMYeah, I don't think I'd be getting myself a job. Aside from my refusal to do facebooks, twitters, or myspaces, they ain't getting any passwords from me.
...in response to this comment by andrew. I suppose Australia is pretty much a variation of America. :)
Gong
Saturday 20th June 2009 | 08:47 AMi think its good
Jake Farr-Wharton
Monday 22nd June 2009 | 08:02 AMSounds like they just want to make sure that the people they hire aren't affilliated with the Nazis or creationists or scientologists and project themselves as a good and wholesome character. I would think that the least intrusive and most ethical way to do this would be to have the applicant log into their site and have the applicant click on areas that the employer deems 'of interest', make it part of the interview. Presumably, they would only want to look into the networking sites of their preferred applicants anyway, otherwise you'd have your selection panel going nuts wasting time for days on end.
Ironically, by requiring that all applicants list their site usernames and passwords, they're unethically attempting to ensure that their employees are ethical.
andrew
Friday 19th June 2009 | 08:41 PMas the saying goes, only in america.