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Employers asking for Facebook passwords

Should it be illegal for employers to ask for Facebook passwords?

  • This is already illegal, covered under existing anti-discrimination laws

    Votes: 9 25.7%

  • We need new legislation to make this illegal

    Votes: 15 42.9%

  • It's poor judgment on the part of the employers, but doesn't need to be illegal

    Votes: 9 25.7%

  • It should be legal, so that employers can conduct a thorough background check

    Votes: 2 5.7%
  • Total voters
    35
Phoenix said:
I have no poor outlook sir. I just happen to believe that one person should not have rights over a business owner merely because they are a business owner.
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They don't have rights over the business owner as a person but as a business. I'm sorry you can't see the distinction.
 
MoSurveyor said:
That's something that happens already with those "background checks". I recently had an experience like that - and for a low-paying PT job no less. It seems Toys-R-Us uses some company to check all their applicants. Even with an uninterrupted employment record going back over 25 years with same employer, this background check came back that I had been in prison for a year in the early '00s and my application was rejected on that information. Same first/last name but guy in prison had no birthdate information attached and no middle initial. Since my first/last name has 12 entries in the metro phone book - and who knows how many others using initials only or some combination? I suspect this will continue to happen and just get worse as time goes by. :(


BTW - I called the checking company but refused to their job for them. They wanted me to submit a written complaint with details, blah blah blah and I told them they were getting the only complaint they needed. I'm old enough I don't give a **** if their data is right or not. Let it get bad enough that it'll really count and I'll sue the bastards instead. :peace
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Can you sue them for libel? They pretty much said you are a convicted criminal and damaged your reputation.
 
radcen said:
Can you sue them for libel? They pretty much said you are a convicted criminal and damaged your reputation.
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Probably. The question is Is it worth it? and the answer, for this job at least, was No. If it were a $60k job then it would probably be worth it. I suspect good employers don't use such poor background checks.
 
Phoenix said:
#1 How many people are going to work at this place if a requirement of employment is sexual favors?
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In this economy? Probably a lot more than you might like to think. And you can't just blithely dismiss it as "they'll just choose not to work there," as though it's so easy for everyone to find a new job...especially if they've already invested a significant amount of time at their current job.

#2 If a person is willing to give sexual favors to get a job who am I to tell them they shouldn't be afforded the opportunity merely because someone else is offended by such a thing?
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Umm I doubt that very many people view sucking dick to keep their job as an "opportunity" that's been "afforded" to them. :roll:
 
MoSurveyor said:
They don't have rights over the business owner as a person but as a business. I'm sorry you can't see the distinction.
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If I was going to hire a person to clean my home and I told them I would only hire them to clean my home if they let me have their Facebook login and password, would you be okay with that?
 
Kandahar said:
Umm I doubt that very many people view sucking dick to keep their job as an "opportunity" that's been "afforded" to them. :roll:
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Why would you make that assumption? People suck dick for a living.
 
Phoenix said:
Why would you make that assumption? People suck dick for a living.
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:shock: Wow.

First of all, almost no one (including people who do it for a living) view it as some great opportunity for which they are grateful. They are usually people at the end of their rope, people who have been forced into it, or people with no other real prospects. Second of all, the idea that some secretary who has worked at a company for 20 years is just a prostitute-in-waiting, who is obviously going to be grateful for the "opportunity" to keep her job by blowing the boss, is crude and sexist. Would YOU be grateful for that opportunity?

Yes, yes, you'd just get another job. Not everyone has that option easily available to them. :roll:
 
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Phoenix said:
If I was going to hire a person to clean my home and I told them I would only hire them to clean my home if they let me have their Facebook login and password, would you be okay with that?
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You're still an employer and that has certain laws attached to it - just as operating a motor vehicle has certain laws attached.
 
Phoenix said:
I am sure the employer would have a law suit on his hands if he tried that. That is how the legal system is currently. Me personally, I have no problem with an employer asking for (to use your example) sexual favors (or facebook passwords).
#1 How many people are going to work at this place if a requirement of employment is sexual favors?
#2 If a person is willing to give sexual favors to get a job who am I to tell them they shouldn't be afforded the opportunity merely because someone else is offended by such a thing?
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My point was that even though a proprietor of a business does and should have control over who is employed and over conditions of the business it is not carte blanche. That would include things like my example of sexual favors and should include a request for the passcode to FACEBOOK or any other site.
 
MoSurveyor said:
You're still an employer and that has certain laws attached to it - just as operating a motor vehicle has certain laws attached.
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I would not be considered an employer, not even by the tax code. But what I asked was would YOU (not the law) think it okay for me to require a facebook login and password if I was going to pay a person to clean MY PERSONAL HOME. As in do you think the person should be able to sue me over it.
 
Shadow Serious said:
My point was that even though a proprietor of a business does and should have control over who is employed and over conditions of the business it is not carte blanche. That would include things like my example of sexual favors and should include a request for the passcode to FACEBOOK or any other site.
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Obviously You and Kandarhar are correct. No one want to give a blow job to be/remain employed. I don't put facebook on that same level.

  1. If it's that big of an issue, don't have a facebook account at all. It's hard not to have genitals.
  2. You don't have to reveal that you have an account. Just say NO.
  3. Delete your account. You can rebuild it. I understand a person not cutting off their genitals but come on it's FACEBOOK
  4. The large majority of facebook accounts are public anyway or at least enough of them to fins out the things people have been complaining about on here. From Google John Smith is a baptist.
 
Shadow Serious said:
My point was that even though a proprietor of a business does and should have control over who is employed and over conditions of the business it is not carte blanche. That would include things like my example of sexual favors and should include a request for the passcode to FACEBOOK or any other site.
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Nope. That employer does not need to know my personal life. Professional only.
 
Bodhisattva said:
Yeah... a close family member has high government security clearance and gets an FBI back ground check every year... I can see that for him but he doesn't do anything like face book online and when I asked he said that nobody at his level does either. The entire thing is an invasion of OTHER PEOPLE's privacy. I have an account that I have logged into 4 times in the last year. All I put up was that I surf and like Metallica pretty much. Like you said, who cares about that? If you use the site as a window into your soul then I think you have bigger things to worry about than your boss finding out you innermost thoughts posted out to a billion strangers.
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I use mine to keep in touch with friends from the Army, and to drunk troll them as well. Emo crap is instantly attacked, and ridiculed with impunity, which is why I constantly wonder why they still do it.
 
Phoenix said:
Obviously You and Kandarhar are correct. No one want to give a blow job to be/remain employed. I don't put facebook on that same level.

  1. If it's that big of an issue, don't have a facebook account at all. It's hard not to have genitals.
  2. You don't have to reveal that you have an account. Just say NO.
  3. Delete your account. You can rebuild it. I understand a person not cutting off their genitals but come on it's FACEBOOK
  4. The large majority of facebook accounts are public anyway or at least enough of them to fins out the things people have been complaining about on here. From Google John Smith is a baptist.
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If there were no other alternative, I would delete my Facebook account. The point is, I shouldn't have to. A potential employer has a legitimate need to find out information relevant to a person's ability to do a job. Period. No employer owns a person. We outlawed that a long time ago. A demand to know someone's Facebook login goes way, way beyond reasonable.
 
Phoenix said:
I would not be considered an employer, not even by the tax code. But what I asked was would YOU (not the law) think it okay for me to require a facebook login and password if I was going to pay a person to clean MY PERSONAL HOME. As in do you think the person should be able to sue me over it.
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Will you be treating them as a potential employee or as a private contractor?
 
MaggieD said:
If an employer asks for your Facebook password, and you give it to him, in my opinion you have just invaded the privacy of all of your Facebook Friends. What right do you have to do that? I belong to a Private Group on Facebook that relates to Tom's son's efforts to adopt a child from China . . . pictures of the baby, heart-felt stories, etc. What right do I have to give out my password so some complete stranger can invade their privacy without their consent?

I don't like new laws. I think we've got plenty of laws. But I also think we need this one. It's in invasion of privacy.

In the meantime, anyone looking for a job should get SMART. Set their Facebook options to Private. And tell their prospective or current employers they don't have a Facebook account.
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No new laws are needed for this. Employers or potential employers do not have the right to look through any of your personal accounts. Emails, cell phones, any of it. Actually I should amend this to say they may ask but do not have the right to base action on you not giving your personal account info to them. employers who are doing this are beyond stupid, or feel they are hiring people beyond stupid and dare to ask this of them. In any case, no one needs to give out their private info, and if an employer takes action against you because you did not offer it up, they will regret it immensely if a decent lawyer is hired.
 
I don't get why it matters to employers that much.

I don't give a **** what you do in your personal life - I hire you own to work for me and within the confines of my business; what you do at home or online is your business. As long as you do your job, do it well, and don't drag your personal life into work we'll get along fine.
 
Sorry, but this is really frustrating.

Employers need to keep their noses out of our Facebook accounts!

Who the hell do these people think they are, and what business is it of theirs to have your password?

/rant.
 
Aren't they just asking for your password? If you give it up wouldn't that still be your fault?

Not that I agree with asking for someones password now.
 
00timh said:
No new laws are needed for this. Employers or potential employers do not have the right to look through any of your personal accounts. Emails, cell phones, any of it. Actually I should amend this to say they may ask but do not have the right to base action on you not giving your personal account info to them. employers who are doing this are beyond stupid, or feel they are hiring people beyond stupid and dare to ask this of them. In any case, no one needs to give out their private info, and if an employer takes action against you because you did not offer it up, they will regret it immensely if a decent lawyer is hired.
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Right now employers or potential employers can ask for it and can fire you or just not hire you if you say no or don't like what they see on your FB. IE they do have that Right right now. For the simple fact that there is nothing to stop them from doing so. After all, an employee is expendable and replaceable. There are millions of people that are looking for work, thousands with the right qualifications if its a high end job.
 
Henrin said:
Aren't they just asking for your password? If you give it up wouldn't that still be your fault?

Not that I agree with asking for someones password now.
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There are people that will give it simply because they NEED a job. So while yeah, technically it is their fault it kind of isn't either as the employer is taking advantage of a persons bad situation and using it. Employers have the mentality that everyone is replaceable. And they are right. Everyone IS replaceable with an unemployment rate of 8.2% national average. And there will always be an unemployment number.
 
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