The ACLU has taken up the case, and publicized the issue on Friday Feb. 18 when, after three weeks, they still had no reply from Maryland Public Safety Secretary Gary Maynard.
The ACLU's letter (.PDF) to Maynard included the following statement:
I write on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland and Division of Correction (DOC) Officer Robert Collins, concerning DOC’s blanket requirement that applicants for employment with the Division, as well as current employees undergoing recertification, provide the government with their social media account usernames and personal passwords for use in employee background checks. As discussed below, we believe the DOC policy constitutes a frightening and illegal invasion of privacy for DOC applicants and employees -- as well those who communicate with them electronically via social media.The ACLU of Maryland sent their letter to Maynard on January 25.
It is one thing for potential employers to browse through your public Facebook, MySpace or Twitter posts. It would seem to be a completely different matter for them to look through all your private information on a social networking site.
Collins said,
"We live in a time when national security is the highest priority, but it must be delicately balanced with personal privacy. My fellow officers and I should not have to allow the government to view our personal Facebook posts and those of our friends, just to keep our jobs."It's true that we have warned before about what you publicly post to Facebook, as public posts can be seen by anyone, including potential employers. However, this DoC policy goes further than that, and would actually mean you would have to delete your Facebook profile, period, if you wanted to work for them and maintain the privacy not just of yourself, but of your Facebook friends. Watch a video show Collins' description of the matter.
Update: After the ACLU chimed in, the DoC began asking applicants to “voluntarily” to provide access to their social media accounts (that's better?).
Via: The Atlantic, ACLU
2 comments:
The City of Bozeman, Montana tried to implement a similar policy in the summer of 2009. The policy last less than 24 hours because of the national backlash they received. Here's a link to one of the stories about it, on Mashable. com: http://mashable.com/2009/09/03.../.
Last fall I wrote a white paper on the subject of "social screening," which relates to this post. It's called, "Social Screening: Employees - and Organizations - Beware." It can be accessed via http://tiny.cc/SocialScreening.... I wrote a follow-up blog post entitled, "Social Screening: The Expanded Discussion," which can be accessed via http://tiny.cc/SocialScreening....
Finding the right approach to social media policies is critically important, and many organizations are guilty of overreaching. A couple of weeks ago, for example, the NLRB settled its "Facebook case" with an employer (AMR), and one of key terms of the settlement was that the employer agreed to revise its "overbroad" policy. I wrote about this case both when the complaint was filed and after it was settled. Here are links to each piece: http://tiny.cc/SMinOrgsNLRBpos... and http://tiny.cc/SMinOrgsNLRBset....
This week I'll be publishing a post on social media policies that addresses the issue in a more holistic way. This is an important issue that requires a thoughtful, balanced approach.
Courtney Hunt
Founder, Social Media in Organizations (SMinOrgs) Community
This story has generated a mini media firestorm in the past week. I have been sharing my thoughts on various articles and blog posts, and I finally decided to write my own reflection as well. Here’s a link to it: http://tiny.cc/4hkbu. One underreported “fact” I learned in doing a little additional research is that a representative from Maryland’s DPSCS says they do not have a policy that requires job candidates to provide login information, so the case may not be as clear-cut as it seems. It will be interesting to see how this case finally gets resolved…
Courtney Hunt
Founder, Social Media in Organizations (SMinOrgs) Community
Post a Comment