That was my thought. Perhaps they just don't want employees who spend all their time on FB.

Wait till they start asking fo Pelican post counts....

Agreed and you can find some of the strangest things on FB and other sites. People sometimes post there like its just them and their closest friends, when its millions of people... and they often shoot themselves in the foot right there out in the open.

Most sales reps have just as much incentive as the boss to not lose deals. At my company we're supposed to do FB and Twitter because all of of our clients do too and we need to know what they're doing and pass best practices along to them. I keep business mostly out of my FB usage and I don't do Twitter at all. But I'd be out of a job if I couldn't speak intelligently about both. And since my boss is a FB friend, his would be the first call I got if I put something inappropriate on there that clients could see.

I posted that in half jest. Unless you have a really unusual name there's bound to be several people with the same name. Now you have to prove one of them is not you. I'm sure the pics help, but not all have a portrait or a pic.

Years back there was an Argentinian with my same name that was a famous motocross rider. He came up on Google. My last name is very German! But the amount of Milts with my last name in this country are somewhat numerous. And yet I meet a Milt about once every 5 years — if that.

I'll have to check Linkedin.

i'm sorry but if someone i interviewed actually gave me their facebook password, i'd reject them on the spot. if the candidate is that easily coaxed into giving out security profiles, i do NOT want them as part of my team.

Beyond privacy concerns, the big cultural issue at play is the increased blurring of work and play. There was a time when your job and the rest of your life were very separate beyond perhaps socializing with some of your co-workers. Now with work-issued phones, computers, multiple email accounts (I have half a dozen), social media (some of it for professional networking, some personal), etc it can be almost impossible to distinguish for some people.

I have submitted to govt intrusion into my life, but that was my choice in getting a clearance as part of my work. I get that. My employer however has done nothing of the sort. While I understand the "risk management" from an employer standpoint, do they really deserve that much leverage into your life?

It is easy to say, "just don't use Facebook," but much harder in reality for current generations to actually follow through. The digital and analogs lives are totally intertwined. In a perfect world an employer should only care if/when something impacts an employee's performance. And frankly some companies encourage FB use as there can be significant upsides (better communication across departments, easier to follow the competition and events, etc). It isn't as clear cut as some of you guys think.

There are some serious points of difference here with regard to access to private social information. There are, in my mind, some legitimate reasons for a request such as posted:

ROT 911 is a lawyer and is bound by attorney-client relationship to keep all information confidential, yet he need access to every shred of information--positive or negative--to best assist his client and to prevent them from hurting their own case.

Government employment often requires deep background checks and one could expect a such a request from a government source.

However, the above story is about a private company that is not the employer but only a possible employer. There is no obligation to keep anything they find confidential and no obligation to hire you after you've given up your personal security information. Accessing the publicly available Facebook material is legitimate, but this goes beyond reason, IMO, and to tacitly hold your future in the balance (job) if you don't comply is blackmail. Perhaps a question during the interview such as, "Would you be willing to give the company your security information to access your social media if you are hired?" would suffice.

I have a friend who is very active on FB, posts constantly on political stuff. I think that has hurt his job search.

Treat your FB postings as if your mother, your boss, and your worst enemy were reading them. Create a different identity if you feel the need to do otherwise.

I would not give FB access to a prospective employer. That said, the applicant may not have a choice.

we use allot of contractors where i work. mostly as AV tech setting up projectors and lights and such.
month or so ago a contractor posted a rant on FB about a bad day he had here but didn't name where he had the bad day at work. a friend of his who also works here joined in on the rant and made several remarks defaming the workplace. He was drunk and forgot that the two of them were "friends "with a good number of the staff that did not like the remarks that where made.
he has not been called for a gig since-

+1 for me. Why not suggest if hired I will allow you my password for a certain time period. If you find anything you do not like you can renege.

I think this really depends on where you go for work. For instance with my company, we have a strict adherence to 'Core Values' as part of our culture. We're encouraged to see what's publicly available on a prospect but we are strictly forbidden from requesting direct access.

What a person posts on their Social Media outlets can directly affect the employer of said person. Especially if other clients/prospective clients see that person as a Representative of your company.

Really, this is a concern? You are freely giving away all your privacy on the internet anyway, facebook is a huge contributor to it so give it up, why not. Why even ask just use an app from another site with API ties and get in and mine the data, but that's too much work.

It's funny what people will take a stand on; stores are tracking you, know what you buy target things specifically for you, Google tracks everything you ever searched on, twitter is now selling all your tweets, police now have the right to search you phone calls, photos, text with no warrant, now the latest thing coming; automatic price changes based on facial recognition. Think about that, how much profiling and stereo typing will there be based on your face, an items' price will change....

I was speaking with someone at Cisco and they said the interview process takes about 3 months, unless you have a facebook account, then it takes about 6 months. Same at Microsoft, etc. etc....


Bob

I do most of the stuff lots of people would associate with my geographic location. I've shown them my bank records. I've had to explain large cash transactions. I have to tell them about a speeding ticket. I have to submit to the hocus-pocus make believe world of polygraphs. I make that choice willingly as a condition of employment associated with the nuclear deterrent and national defense.

They've never asked for my Facebook login, which I check from work now and then. I guess they have it already? Following the work computer rules of "nothing your boss, wife, kids, senator (for us gov't leaches), CNN (again...), mother or priest would be bothered with" there's not a problem anyway.

That "normal world" industries pull that crap -- they're setting the expectation that everyone is guilty and has something to hide. We have legal means to handle libel and slander. The internet might make the damage/backsplash of such things quicker and stronger but really...

It's a buyer's market for meat/labor/employees out there. Sucks to be the meat.

I'm a Labor Relations/HR kinda professional. Not only would I refuse to allow this level of personal intrusion, as an employer representative I would refuse to ASK prospective employees for this access. Generally speaking, employers already have access to sufficient personal information in order to make a hiring decision.

Yes, I was happy to be fingerprinted for a job requiring security clearance, and was happy to discover that the FBI, FAA and Homeland Security considers me to be one of the good guys. And I would submit to that again.

But in most employment situations, email access and Facebook passwords and cavity searches are......danger signals. Danger, Will Robinson, Danger!

if you Facebook from a work computer the admins/your boss already know your password. they see everything you do.

I doubt it. My tech support folks always have to ask permission to remote into my machine. I'd be more than happy to have them do it without bothering me. When I've been unable to get a password to work, they are only able to help by resetting it, not retrieving it. When I have to mail my laptop in for repair, they always ask me to send them all my passwords beforehand and also print them out and enclose with laptop. I'm sure there are ways of shutting me down and retrieving things I've typed if they really, really had to. But it's not a trivial matter for them to watch me without my cooperation. Besides, we sub tech support out to a contractor. They really need their hands held when working on our machines.

I have no problem with it.
Doesnt the potential employer have the right to do a thorough investigation?
Background checks only tell so much. If you are dumb enough to post incriminating stuff on facebook, I dont want you working for me.
If you have a problem with it, go to the next job.

If I log onto to face book from a work computer, the login info is kept, the network admin immediately has that info. Its not a matter of tracking every keystroke, its specifically monitoring face book log ins.

In a recent face-to-face interview one of the 'personal items' of info I offered up was that I am not a member of OR have a public profile on any social networking site. I DO have a minimal profile on LinkdIn for business as well as here and one other car hobby related site. That's it.

I then told them if they had any doubts or questions....feel free to google me...............................

They were 'surprised'...........in a good way.

Looks like they may not be able to ask for much longer.

Facebook says it may sue employers who demand job applicants' passwords