Democrats Stand Up To Employers: Stop Demanding Facebook Passwords
The issue of employers asking for or demanding facebook passwords from their employees has been a hot item of late. It seems that the Democrats in Washington are coming to the rescue and want to protect employees with the new Password Protection Act of 2012. The bill, which was introduced in the U.S. Senate by Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), seeks to keep employers from even requesting passwords to an employee’s social networking accounts. In the House of Representatives, Congressmen Martin Heinrick (D-MN)and Ed Perlmutter (D-CO) have also introduced a similar companion bill.
According to Richard Blumenthal’s website, the bill he helped introduce will do two things:
- Prohibit an employer from forcing prospective or current employees to provide access to their own private account as a condition of employment.
- Prohibit employers from discriminating or retaliating against a prospective or current employee because that employee refuses to provide access to a password-protected account.
In the end, this looks to be good news for those out there being pressured to give up their privacy to employers. Financial penalties possible for those whom violate the bill should keep employers in check. For more details on the issue, you can check the source below.
Heinrich raised the point that information found on Facebook could be used against an employee.
“Employers demanding Facebook passwords or confidential information on other social networks is an egregious privacy violation and should be against the law,” the Congressman said in a statement. “Personal information like race, religion, age, and sexual orientation is often accessible on social networking profiles, and by having access to this information employers could discriminate against an applicant who would otherwise be qualified for a job.”
Comments are closed.