Want a Job? Give Me All Your Passwords!

Posted on | June 19, 2009 | No Comments

Scenic as it is, I’ve never wanted to live in Montana.  I’ve got my reasons, but city officials in Bozeman, Montana just gave me one more very good reason to stay away.  They are requiring that job applicants for positions including fire and police not only give the usual biographical and employment information, but also a list of the social networks, websites, blogs, forums, etc. to which they belong and their passwords.

According to KBZK, the Montana news station that received the initial tip, the application actually states: “Please list any and all current personal or business Web sites, Web pages or memberships on any Internet-based chat rooms, social clubs or forums, to include, but not limited to: Facebook, Google, Yahoo, YouTube.com, MySpace, etc.”

Interestingly, this blurb does not appear on the job application available via the City of Bozeman’s official website.  Nor does it appear in its Employment Process Policy.  What does appear in the city’s policy and on its application is an equal employment opportunity (EEO) statement that states that the City of Bozeman “does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, sex, age, marital status, national origin, political ideas, or disability in employment or the provision of services”.

Bozeman’s city attorney, Greg Sullivan, claims the city has been requiring the information for 3-4 years.  He defends the city’s hiring practice, saying the government “has a responsibility to protect the public, and therefore asking for the information is necessary…to make sure the people that we hire have the highest moral character and are a good fit for the city.”

Bulls$*&!  It is impossible to treat candidates fairly when you are requiring that they tell you the social networks, chat rooms, social clubs or forums to which they are belong.  Virtually everyone posts a photo of themselves, their friends and family on their profiles.  So, their race, color, national origin, sex, age, and possibly their disabilities is apparent.  Most people identify their political leanings and their religious beliefs either explicitly or implicitly in their profiles, blog posts and in other online interactions.  Even if you don’t post your own personal information, what about the information posted by your friends and family?

And, what information or photos qualify or disqualify you as being of the “highest moral character and a good fit for the city”?  This is simply too vague to allow “city officials” to go on a phishing trip in personal lives, and those of our family and friends whose profiles, blogs, causes and social clubs are linked to ours.  In addition to concerns about discrimination, organizations including the ACLU have raised privacy concerns.

Sullivan answered these concerns by saying that the city takes privacy rights seriously, but has to balance individual privacy rights with “the need of the city to ensure we have the best employees.”  Sullivan went on to say that job applicants’ information is not looked at early in the hiring process, only if applicants become finalists and after a provisional job offer is made.

I’m all for employers doing what they can to research applicants–Google them, search for them on Facebook and MySpace, read their blogs–but requiring that applicants provide you their usernames and passwords (access we don’t even provide to friends and family) is way over the line!

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