Stop at the Intersection of Job Application and Facebook Login

Sands Anderson PC
Contact

At the intersection of social media and law today is whether employers can or should ask job candidates for their Facebook login information as part of the interview process or force candidates or employees to “Friend” someone at the company.

Several recent situations are raising this issue:

•The Maryland Department of Corrections used to ask applicants for password information. After a complaint by the Maryland Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, it now asks applicants to log in themselves during the interview so the interviewer can look over their shoulders to monitor social media use.

•UNC employs an outside social media monitoring service called Varsity Monitor to watch what its athletes are saying online. This partly stems from the recent NCAA sanctions for violations in the football program. The NCAA alleged that adequate and consistent monitoring of Tarheel athletes’ social media use would have revealed potential amateurism violations.

•This North Carolina police department job application explicitly asks for usernames and passwords for social media accounts. Bozeman, Montana has been doing this for a while.

•In Spotsylvania Virginia, law enforcement employees are forced to log onto social media accounts and scroll through while interviewers watch.

Please see full publication below for more information.

LOADING PDF: If there are any problems, click here to download the file.

DISCLAIMER: Because of the generality of this update, the information provided herein may not be applicable in all situations and should not be acted upon without specific legal advice based on particular situations.

© Sands Anderson PC | Attorney Advertising

Written by:

Sands Anderson PC
Contact
more
less

Sands Anderson PC on:

Reporters on Deadline

"My best business intelligence, in one easy email…"

Your first step to building a free, personalized, morning email brief covering pertinent authors and topics on JD Supra:
*By using the service, you signify your acceptance of JD Supra's Privacy Policy.
Custom Email Digest
- hide
- hide