We all laughed at our mothers when they told us, "Be careful what you post online it will be out there for anyone to see... forever!" Oh, Mom. So naive. There are things called privacy settings, duh. Didn't you ever wonder why you can't see any pictures I'm tagged in? Limited profile.
But Mom, like always, might have been right. In one of the creepier and more disturbing trends to hit the news cycle of late particularly for my fellow job-seeking seniors some employers have been requesting or demanding applicants' Facebook and other social media passwords as part of the hiring process. While over 95 percent of companies surveyed by Forbes admit to using social media to investigate potential hires (65 percent say they have rejected applicants based on what they've found), employers actually logging into an applicant's account is a new, scary and potentially unlawful development toward the internet dystopia about which we were warned.
Last week, the Associated Press published a report detailing how potential employees were being asked or forced to hand over Facebook passwords during interviews or on applications. Predictably, the reaction to the story was wild. The American Civil Liberties Union came out strongly against the practice with a blog post titled, "Your Facebook Password Should Be None Of Your Boss' Business," and Facebook itself publically threatened using lawsuits against employers who demand access to applicants' accounts, as sharing one's password constitutes a breach of Facebook's user agreement. The issue went all the way to our nation's lawmakers when Colorado Rep. Ed Perlmutter, D-Colo., proposed an amendment to the Federal Communications Commission Process Reform Act of 2012 that would make the practice illegal. It was, of course, voted down.
Given that hardly any of these reports are thoroughly substantiated (the original Associated Press article cited a single case, and most ensuing examples came from the law enforcement and public service sectors), it would be easy to write this all off as internet sensationalism or just another scary story our mothers told us to keep us in line. But there is something very real about it all. A very real feeling of helplessness: The idea that our past immaturity, our moments of youthful rebellion and silliness, will indeed come back to haunt us. How much privacy do we deserve?
If you're like me, you've resigned yourself to the fact that the government or any decent computer hacker can find out pretty much everything about you. We lost that one already. Unless you want to live in the woods without your iPhone, get over it. But the government doesn't generally care about the jealous, drunken Facebook message I sent to an ex-girlfriend at 3 a.m. freshman year. No hacker, I hope, cares how drunk I got one spring break or how much I hated that summer internship. Employers, however, might.
Even though the practice of employers requiring access to an applicant's social media sites isn't currently widespread, it may be soon if no legal restrictions are put in place. Say I'm gay. Transgender. Say I have a kid, or a pregnant wife. Say I have an expensive medical condition. Say I had a bad few months once upon a time. My potential employers do not have the right to know this, and they certainly do not have the right, without oversight, to factor that kind of private, personal knowledge into their hiring decisions.
We are responsible for what we choose to share with the world. If my profile picture depicts me half naked taking hits from a five-foot bong, I deserve what's coming to me. But Facebook and other social media sites are not solely about public display they are also about privately communicating and connecting with people with whom you are close. For better or for worse, we do not send letters we send messages. And while past generations were usually lucky enough to die before their private letters were found and examined, ours are right here, freely available for anyone with the right combination of five to eight alphanumeric characters.
We need privacy to grow, to make mistakes, to think and say stupid things and to find out who we really are. Without privacy, we are sanitized, guarded and, frankly, less interesting people. Our occasional idiocy, our youthfulness, our immaturity we have a right to that. Employers do not.
