According to this article, Facebook may take legal actions against employers who are found to be asking employees for their Facebook passwords. It is also against the Facebook privacy policy to share passwords.
I think this is a really important stance. Although it would be nice if governments made it illegal for employers to ask for social media passwords, this is at least a step in the right direction.
Some people may be outraged that companies even consider asking for such personal information; however, I can appreciate that perhaps some companies worry that their employees may be posting information or opinions on Facebook which may be harmful to the company. Despite this logic, they should still have no control over employees' accounts. The idea of it even seems Orwellian. When the line between work and personal life becomes too blurry, simply speaking one's mind on a non-work-related issue can become a job-threatening act.
This is clearly illustrated in this Twitter conversation between the two co-founders of tech start-up Geeklist and web-citizen Shanley Kane. In the conversation, which began with Kane's tweet about a scantily-clad model bearing the logo of Geeklist, Kane's employment at company Basho is brought up and threatened on the basis that Basho is a client of Geeklist's. Although Basho sided with Kane in the fact that the conversation had nothing to do with her employment there, she could have been unlucky enough for them to feel otherwise and lost her job.
In order for us to have a free and open society, we must have separations among institutions, divisions of power: between work and personal life, between church and state, and in many other more specific scenarios. If any one sphere of life absorbs too much of another, there is the possibility of tyranny. It is my personal belief that humans will and do take advantage of every scenario that is available for them to benefit from, and if we too easily give or vote away our rights and privileges, including privacy, we have only ourselves to blame.
I think it's disgraceful of any company to ask for such personal information. If they want to look at what has been made public then that's fine. Employers would never ask for your personal email account and password so what makes facebook different?
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you that there should be clear distinctions between work and personal life. Many companies actually make a point of keeping an employees personal and work lives separate as well so can't see this being too common.
Anyway nice blog, keep up the good work!