By Manuel Valdes and Shsannon McFarland
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."
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.
Until
last year, the city of Bozeman, Mont., had a long-standing policy of
asking job applicants for passwords to their email addresses,
social-networking websites and other online accounts.
And
since 2006, the McLean County, Ill., 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 jeopardize job prospects, Thomas said
"it depends on the situation" but could include "inappropriate pictures
or relationships with people who are underage, illegal behavior."
In
Spotsylvania County, Va., the sheriff's department asks applicants to
friend background investigators for jobs at the 911 dispatch center and
for law enforcement positions.
"In
the past, we've talked to friends and neighbors, but a lot of times we
found that applicants interact more through social media sites than they
do with real friends," said Capt. Mike Harvey. "Their virtual friends
will know more about them than a person living 30 yards away from them."
Harvey said investigators look for any "derogatory" behavior that could damage the agency's reputation.
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 a 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.
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. spokeswoman 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 realize 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
specializing in Internet privacy, is concerned about the pressure placed
on applicants, even if they voluntarily provide access to social sites.
"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."
