[Infowarrior] - City to job applicants: Facebook, MySpace log-ins please

[Richard Forno]

Ummm. Yeah.....okay, sure, I'll give you my PASSWORDS so you can check  
up on me before hiring me.  Good luck with that.  Definately clueless  
folks in their HR department!     ---rf


City to job applicants: Facebook, MySpace log-ins please

http://arstechnica.com/web/news/2009/06/city-to-job-applicants-facebook-myspace-log-ins-please.ars

The city government in Bozeman, Montana, isn't content to cyberstalk  
its potential employees—they're now asking applicants for their login  
information for any social networking sites.

By John Timmer | Last updated June 18, 2009 9:25 PM CT

One of the things people tend to forget when posting pictures and  
personal information online is that a lot of it is only a short  
Internet search away from their current or potential employers (not to  
mention their parents). It has now become standard procedure for many  
employers to sit down with Google and cyberstalk potential employees,  
while the more savvy hunt down Facebook profiles and Twitter feeds.  
The city of Bozeman Montana, however, has decided that all of that is  
too much work—it's now requesting that potential employees hand over  
the login credentials for any social networking sites they frequent.

Background checks are standard procedure for many jobs, as it allows  
employers to identify problematic legal histories and things of that  
nature. Bozeman is no exception, as it uses a waiver form to obtain an  
applicant's consent to use their Social Security and driver's license  
numbers to dig into their past. But the form is notable in that about  
a third of area that needs to be filled out by an applicant is devoted  
to website information.

"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 form reads. But Bozeman isn't simply  
interested in finding out where to look for potentially embarrassing  
personal details; the city wants full disclosure, since the form  
demands username and password information for each. City employees  
will apparently be able to dig through any information applicants have  
put online, regardless of whether it's accessible to the public.

This is especially ironic given that Bozeman's website has an  
extensive privacy policy that indicates a significant familiarity with  
some of the major issues that have cropped up regarding the retention  
and security of information entrusted to websites.

This actually goes well beyond a startling invasion of privacy in a  
state that has a reputation for a strong independent streak; it  
provides a serious risk of running afoul of employment law. Employers  
are typically prohibited from digging into an applicant's ethnic or  
religious background. An Internet search already runs the risk of  
picking up photos or text that can reveal these sorts of details;  
opening a person's social networking accounts would seem to make the  
discovery of these details almost inevitable.

A local news station spoke to Bozeman's attorney and asked about the  
potential for problems of this sort. The city's answer? Trust us! "One  
thing that's important for folks to understand about what we look for  
is none of the things that the federal constitution lists as protected  
things, we don't use those," said attorney Greg Sullivan. The  
interviewer was wise enough to point out that there were far less  
invasive ways of obtaining access to some of this information, such as  
having Bozeman open its own Facebook account, at which point Sullivan  
apparently said that might be worth looking into.

It's probably safer to ascribe this sort of behavior to cluelessness  
rather than malice. But the cluelessness is apparently a two-way  
street, as Sullivan indicated that nobody has objected to the city's  
request for login credentials.