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Bozeman City job requirement raises privacy concerns

Dr_Patrick

Dr_Patrick

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Applying for a job with the City of Bozeman? You may be asked to provide more personal information than you expected.

That was the case for one person who applied for employment with the City. The anonymous viewer emailed the news station recently to express concern with a component of the city's background check policy, which states that to be considered for a job applicants must provide log-in information and passwords for social network sites in which they participate.

The requirement is included on a waiver statement applicants must sign, giving the City permission to conduct an investigation into the person's "background, references, character, past employment, education, credit history, criminal or police records."

"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.," the City form states. There are then three lines where applicants can list the Web sites, their user names and log-in information and their passwords.

SOURCE: Montana's News Station
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So I'm posting this because this is taking place in my town (Bozeman, Montana) and because it's been getting some fairly big media attention lately.

Anyway, what does everyone think of this? I personally think this is an outrageous violation of privacy. Why should anyone have to give the city access to such sites? It is possible to look at people's myspace pages without a password. Why can't that be enough?
 
Are they getting any applicants?
and who wants to live in a cold, remote place like Bozeman?
 
UtahBill said:
Are they getting any applicants?
and who wants to live in a cold, remote place like Bozeman?
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I have no idea. People are pretty outraged about it all over the net, though.

And Bozeman isn't that cold or remote.
 
Withhold the information.

How can they prove it without your help ?

Dumbass policy only a dumbass would comply with.
 
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Voidwar said:
Withhold the information.

How can they prove it without your help ?

Dumbass law only a dumbass would comply with.
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True, but they shouldn't even be asking in the first place.
 
Dr_Patrick said:
I have no idea. People are pretty outraged about it all over the net, though.

And Bozeman isn't that cold or remote.
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I grew up in southeast Texas, spent most of my adult life in warm states with the exception of 8 years in southeast Idaho. It doesn't take much for me to consider a place cold...
Do current city employees have to surrender that much info? or are they "grandfathered" ? Do they have an employee or 2 keeping tabs on the personal lives of employees? Sounds like a big waste of taxpayer funds.
Big Brother is alive and well in Bozeman, Montana.:shock:
 
UtahBill said:
I grew up in southeast Texas, spent most of my adult life in warm states with the exception of 8 years in southeast Idaho. It doesn't take much for me to consider a place cold...
Do current city employees have to surrender that much info? or are they "grandfathered" ? Do they have an employee or 2 keeping tabs on the personal lives of employees? Sounds like a big waste of taxpayer funds.
Big Brother is alive and well in Bozeman, Montana.:shock:
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Well, Bozeman, Montana is largely comprised of rich pompous yuppies who have an extremely elitist attitude. It really should surprise me more, but I have no doubt that with this media attention they will fold like a cheap suit and have a far more reasonable application process.
 
I wouldn't tell them any of that. It's none of their business.
 
Telling them about your online activities is bad enough, but they want the passwords as well? That's asinine.

And the way the job market is these days, you can probably count on people to give up a piece of privacy that they shouldn't have to give up, just in hopes of getting a job.
 
Birdzeye said:
Telling them about your online activities is bad enough, but they want the passwords as well? That's asinine.

And the way the job market is these days, you can probably count on people to give up a piece of privacy that they shouldn't have to give up, just in hopes of getting a job.
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Agreed. Give them passwords. No ****ing way.
 
Scarecrow Akhbar said:
People willingly surrender their liberties for security.
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What security would that be? Whether or not they picked a good song for their myspace profile?

Honestly, I fail to see how passwords for such sites are necessary. As I said, one can view a person's Myspace page without needing their login info.
 
Dr_Patrick said:
So I'm posting this because this is taking place in my town (Bozeman, Montana) and because it's been getting some fairly big media attention lately.

Anyway, what does everyone think of this? I personally think this is an outrageous violation of privacy. Why should anyone have to give the city access to such sites? It is possible to look at people's myspace pages without a password. Why can't that be enough?
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Time to move. That's way overboard and none of their business.

If this were a private company, I'd say they can ask for any info they want on you. But, this is city government supported by tax dollars, so they have no right to such personal info as this. It's a definite invasion of privacy.
 
There is no way I would comply with this request. I wouldn't be opposed to giving them my home page along with my professional references and release to do a criminal background check. However, this request is akin to them asking to sit in your home and observe you, go out with you on your personal time and observe you, and to read your private communications.

There's no way I would comply and if they forced the issue, I would be more than happy to press a legal complaint.
 
Providing some links to these sites is one thing but to ask for login information is too much.

-Ex Bozeman citizen. I do miss that state but not because of this sort of thing.
 
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