California Governor Jerry Brown Signs Social-Media Passwords Bill

California Gov. Jerry Brown has signed a two bills that makes it it illegal for employers and colleges to demand access to social media accounts! It turns out some people had to turn over their user names and passwords to social-media accounts so employers and schools could research and see what the job applicants and students were doing! This is a pretty major breech of privacy, so we are glad to see laws are being put into place that protects our rights. California is the fourth state to enact such a ban this year. Congress defeated a similar measure, but that shouldn’t shock anyone.

Governor Brown first announced that he would sign the bills via five social-media outlets, including Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. The measures are AB1844 by Assemblywoman Nora Campos, D-San Jose, and SB1349 by Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco. Both will take effect Jan. 1, 2013. With this passage, California now joins Maryland, Illinois and Delaware as states that have enacted legislation that prohibits demanding personal social media account information. A total of 14 states considered legislation in 2012 and you can see if your state is on that list here.