- Aug 20, 2000
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Bozeman?s Facebook password grab
Ms. Farnsworth is correct that your future, potential employers will likely check you out on Facebook for that extra added bit of insight into your personality - I've done it myself - but asking for your password is ludicrous. Whenever a really egregious attempt at breaching an individual's privacy like this occurs, I always hope for the maximum amount of noise to be made in order to make the rats who have ideas like this scurry back into the night.
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-Schadenfroh (AT Mod)
Bozeman, Mont., is a lovely town, but its city hiring officials ?have apparently lost their minds,? said Terrence O?Brien in AOL's Switched. The job application for any city job asks, among other things, for your login name and password for social networking and other personal websites sites, including Facebook, MySpace, Google, and Yahoo. This is clearly a ?full-fledged invasion of privacy.?
Bozeman officials say they don?t throw out applications that leave that section blank, said Liz Wolgemuth in U.S. News. But the fact that Bozeman feels it can be that invasive ?speaks to the challenges facing the unemployed in this market.? Bozeman?s method may be ?extreme,? but it?s by no means the only novel or stringent trick employers are using to winnow down the ?piles of resumes for fewer openings.?
Asking for ?pointers? to an applicant?s public blogs and Facebook pages is understandable, said Lisa Hoover in Computerworld, if somewhat lazy on Human Resource?s part. But passwords? Look, ?what my Google search history holds, what I?ve watched on YouTube, or what my Facebook inbox contains is no one?s business but my own.?
That?s why Bozeman is reviewing its policy, said Amy Farnsworth in The Christian Science Monitor, and will probably only ask that you ?friend? city officials on Facebook, for example, so they can see your profile. But Bozeman?s ?application curve ball? is a reminder to watch what you post?your future potential employer is probably watching.
Ms. Farnsworth is correct that your future, potential employers will likely check you out on Facebook for that extra added bit of insight into your personality - I've done it myself - but asking for your password is ludicrous. Whenever a really egregious attempt at breaching an individual's privacy like this occurs, I always hope for the maximum amount of noise to be made in order to make the rats who have ideas like this scurry back into the night.
Repost
-Schadenfroh (AT Mod)