Facebook Privacy No More

The Courier Journal is reporting that employers are seeking the Facebook username and password of job applicants so they can peer into their lives like never before.  While criminal and credit background checks have been commonplace along side prior employment history and education, this level of examination is startling.

According to the article, employers feel as if the employee will be representing the company and as such have some rights to make sure that applicants in their private lives will reflect the proper social image.

Really?  Considering that Facebook started on a college campus does this mean that the legendary antics of college kids is going to be used as a dis-qualifier for future employment?  I wonder how many CEO’s and board members went through a similar vetting process.

More likely than not what this represents is an age old problem: the perversion of personal ethics.  It’s one thing to have a founding principle at the core of our society, but quite another to stand by that principle when tempted to gain something from abandoning it.

This is the same problem we face when the police employ “lookie-loos” to sneak a peek into private areas before obtaining a search warrant.  It’s the same problem we face when drug dogs sniff cars at road blocks or the TSA justifies a warrant-less search of your crotch as necessary to prevent a terrorist from using an airplane as a missile again.

A security camera aimed at the dark rear entrance of your business sounds like a good idea, until nearly every move you make is now recorded somewhere or viewed by drones flying so high they are invisible.

People in the United States frequently find reasons why the real principles which formed the foundation of our Constitution are no longer applicable, yet will publicly complain that the Supreme Court sees the Constitution as a “living document”.

So the next kid who goes in for a job interview who is asked to give up his or her Facebook password and username should offer to “friend” the interviewer and let them look at what ever the kid has made public.  But asking them to violate the privacy terms of the Facebook agreement should be a good indicator that this isn’t the kind of company you want to work for anyway.

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