Seattle - When Justin Bassett interviewed for a new job, he expected the
usual questions about experience and references. So he was astonished
when the interviewer asked for something else: His Facebook username and
password.
Bassett, a New York City statistician, had just
finished answering a few character questions when the interviewer turned
to her computer to search for his Facebook page. But she couldn't see
his private profile. She turned back and asked him to hand over his
login information.
Bassett refused and withdrew his application,
saying he didn't want to work for a company that would seek such
personal information. But as the job market steadily improves, other job
candidates are confronting the same question from prospective
employers, and some of them cannot afford to say no.
In their
efforts to vet applicants, some companies and government agencies are
going beyond merely glancing at a person's social networking profiles
and instead asking to log in as the user to have a look around.
"It's
akin to requiring someone's house keys," said Orin Kerr, a George
Washington University law professor and former federal prosecutor who
calls it "an egregious privacy violation".
Company computer
Questions
have been raised about the legality of the practice, which is also the
focus of proposed legislation in Illinois and Maryland that would forbid
public agencies from asking for access to social networks.
Since
the rise of social networking, it has become common for managers to
review publicly available Facebook profiles, Twitter accounts and other
sites to learn more about job candidates. But many users, especially on
Facebook, have their profiles set to private, making them available only
to selected people or certain networks.
Companies that don't ask
for passwords have taken other steps - such as asking applicants to
friend human resource managers or to log in to a company computer during
an interview. Once employed, some workers have been required to sign
non-disparagement agreements that ban them from talking negatively about
an employer on social media.
Asking for a candidate's password
is more prevalent among public agencies, especially those seeking to
fill law enforcement positions such as police officers or 911
dispatchers.
Back in 2010, Robert Collins was returning to his
job as a security guard at the Maryland Department of Public Safety and
Correctional Services after taking a leave following his mother's death.
During a reinstatement interview, he was asked for his login and
password, purportedly so the agency could check for any gang
affiliations. He was stunned by the request but complied.
"I needed my job to feed my family. I had to," he recalled.
After
the ACLU complained about the practice, the agency amended its policy,
asking instead for job applicants to log in during interviews.
"To
me, that's still invasive. I can appreciate the desire to learn more
about the applicant, but it's still a violation of people's personal
privacy," said Collins, whose case inspired Maryland's legislation.
Right to refuse
Until
last year, the city of Bozeman, Montana, had a long-standing policy of
asking job applicants for passwords to their e-mail addresses,
social-networking websites and other online accounts.
And since
2006, the McLean County, Illionis, sheriff's office has been one of
several Illinois sheriff's departments that ask applicants to sign into
social media sites to be screened.
Chief Deputy Rusty Thomas
defended the practice, saying applicants have a right to refuse. But no
one has ever done so. Thomas said that "speaks well of the people we
have apply".
When asked what sort of material would jeopardise
job prospects, Thomas said "it depends on the situation" but could
include "inappropriate pictures or relationships with people who are
underage, illegal behaviour".
E Chandlee Bryan, a career coach
and co-author of the book The Twitter Job Search Guide, said job seekers
should always be aware of what's on their social media sites and assume
someone is going to look at it.
Bryan said she is troubled by
companies asking for logins, but she feels it's not violation if an
employer asks to see a Facebook profile through a friend request. And
she's not troubled by non-disparagement agreements.
"I think that
when you work for a company, they are essentially supporting you in
exchange for your work. I think if you're dissatisfied, you should go to
them and not on a social media site," she said.
Applications
More
companies are also using third-party applications to scour Facebook
profiles, Bryan said. One app called BeKnown can sometimes access
personal profiles, short of wall messages, if a job seeker allows it.
Sears
is one of the companies using apps. An applicant has the option of
logging into the Sears job site through Facebook by allowing a
third-party application to draw information from the profile, such as
friend lists.
Sears Holdings Inc spokesperson Kim Freely said
using a Facebook profile to apply allows Sears to be updated on the
applicant's work history.
The company assumes "that people keep
their social profiles updated to the minute, which allows us to consider
them for other jobs in the future or for ones that they may not realise
are available currently", she said.
Giving out Facebook login
information violates the social network's terms of service. But those
terms have no real legal weight, and experts say the legality of asking
for such information remains murky.
The Department of Justice
regards it as a federal crime to enter a social networking site in
violation of the terms of service, but during recent congressional
testimony, the agency said such violations would not be prosecuted.
But
Lori Andrews, law professor at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law
specialising in internet privacy, is concerned about the pressure placed
on applicants, even if they voluntarily provide access to social sites.
Lucky
"Volunteering is coercion if you need a job," Andrews said.
Neither Facebook nor Twitter responded to repeated requests for comment.
In New York, Bassett considered himself lucky that he was able to turn down the consulting gig at a lobbying firm.
"I
think asking for account login credentials is regressive," he said. "If
you need to put food on the table for your three kids, you can't afford
to stand up for your belief."