What happened to the good ole days of Facebook stalking where you try to “friend” the applicant and then see their page? This story has blown up in the news and gained a lot of attention in just a short amount of time. I feel like requesting Facebook login information would scare of possible candidates. If they don’t have anything to hide, they will gladly show you their page without having to hand you the password. Also, from a public relations standpoint, this shows that employers have little faith in their employees. It makes employers appear untrusting and unwilling to build personal relationships. In my personal experience, I have NEVER learned information about a person more from Facebook than from actually just taking the time to get to know them.
I understand how employers could examine someone’s Facebook page and make judgments about them as a person; however, I have to wonder how accurate those judgments really are? Can you learn everything you need to know from someone’s Facebook page? Employers are taking applicants login information and not only viewing the applicants’ page, but also their friends’ pages. For example, I am friends with about 900 people on Facebook, yet I only actually spend face-to-face time with 30 of them. Just how accurate of an analysis of a person can you make from this? We no longer judge a book by its cover, we judge by its Facebook page. Also, most people tend to use Facebook to connect with others. If knowing that an employer could deny you a job based on your Facebook profile and friends, will this limit who you are friends with and your connections?
It will be very interesting to see how this plays out in the courts and in the future that’s for sure. What do you think? Are employers overstepping?
I've heard of a few people that were asked for their Facebook passwords when they were job hunting. My first question was "how much are they going to pay you?" Why don't I also install webcams allover my house and let them see what I'm doing 24/7? I'm fortunate to have never encountered the question of "Can we have your Facebook password".
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