{"id":60,"date":"2009-06-23T18:18:05","date_gmt":"2009-06-23T18:18:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/everydayethics\/2009\/06\/bozeman-mt-asks-for-applicants-facebook-username-password.html"},"modified":"2009-06-23T18:18:05","modified_gmt":"2009-06-23T18:18:05","slug":"bozeman-mt-asks-for-applicants-facebook-username-password","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/06\/bozeman-mt-asks-for-applicants-facebook-username-password.html","title":{"rendered":"Bozeman, MT, Asks for Applicants’ Facebook Username & Password"},"content":{"rendered":"

How much information are you willing to disclose to snag a
\njob? Most companies already insist on background checks, but Bozeman, MT, is
\nasking applicants for city positions to submit their social networking
\nusernames and passwords<\/a>. Guess I won’t be applying there anytime soon.<\/span><\/p>\n

Granted, submitting this 
\n<\/span>information is voluntary. Still, how far is too far? Here’s the city’s
\nargument (via Chuck Winn, Bozeman’s assistant city manager):<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>“Shame on us if there was information out
\nthere available about a person who applied for a job who was a child molester
\nor had some sort of information out there on the Internet that kind of showed
\nthose propensities and we didn’t look for it, we didn’t ask, and we hired that
\nperson. In many ways we would have let the public down.”<\/span><\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Hmm.
\nInteresting. The child molester argument is certainly a good one for proponents
\nof this new measure, but let’s take it down a notch.  <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I try to keep my Facebook page fairly innocuous, but I don’t
\nnecessarily want my mother or boss stumbling across my page and poking around.
\nFor this reason, I have privacy settings. Why don’t I want my mom\/boss\/stranger
\nviewing my page? Not because I’m a child molester, but because I’m a different
\nperson for my friends (it’s social<\/i> networking, remember) than I am for
\nmy boss. I don’t want potential employers forming a skewed opinion of who I am
\nas an employee because they chance upon a picture of me out at a bar.
\nMore importantly, I don’t think I should be asked<\/i> to share who I am
\noutside of work with future employers. What if a potential employer disapproved
\nof drinking? What if they were a fundamentalist (insert a religion here), saw that I was Hindu and disapproved?
\nEtc, etc.<\/span><\/p>\n

Does refusing to submit my username and password open me up
\nto reasonable suspicion? Is it similar to refusing to take part in voluntary
\ndrug testing?<\/span><\/p>\n

Let’s face it, in a perfect world, we would all<\/i> like
\nGoogle to inform us before we hire a child molester, or date a cheater, or
\nfriend a cat-killer. One little search and Bam! We don’t have to risk being
\nhurt, or conned. But there’s only so much we can do and there’s only so much we
\ncan expect before we start trampling over the very important right to free speech and privacy. <\/span><\/p>\n

We’ve all been warned to be careful what you put up on the
\ninternet, and that’s fair enough – Google is a tool that any employer has the
\nright to use. But asking you to turn over usernames and passwords is going too
\nfar. I kinda like these First Amendment rights of mine.<\/span><\/p>\n

Thoughts?<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How much information are you willing to disclose to snag a job? Most companies already insist on background checks, but Bozeman, MT, is asking applicants for city positions to submit their social networking usernames and passwords. Guess I won’t be applying there anytime soon. Granted, submitting this  information is voluntary. Still, how far is too…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":198,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-padmini-mangunta","category-work-ethics"],"yoast_head":"\nBozeman, MT, Asks for Applicants' Facebook Username & Password - Everyday Ethics<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/06\/bozeman-mt-asks-for-applicants-facebook-username-password.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bozeman, MT, Asks for Applicants' Facebook Username & Password - Everyday Ethics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"How much information are you willing to disclose to snag a job? Most companies already insist on background checks, but Bozeman, MT, is asking applicants for city positions to submit their social networking usernames and passwords. Guess I won’t be applying there anytime soon. Granted, submitting this  information is voluntary. Still, how far is too…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/06\/bozeman-mt-asks-for-applicants-facebook-username-password.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Everyday Ethics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-06-23T18:18:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Padmini Mangunta\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Bozeman, MT, Asks for Applicants' Facebook Username & Password - Everyday Ethics","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/06\/bozeman-mt-asks-for-applicants-facebook-username-password.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Bozeman, MT, Asks for Applicants' Facebook Username & Password - Everyday Ethics","og_description":"How much information are you willing to disclose to snag a job? 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In addition to writing for a various print and online publications, such as Parenting Magazine and iVillage, she was the Website Manager for the Henry Street Settlement, a social services and arts organization serving Manhattan's Lower East Side. Most recently, she worked on the Thai-Myanmar border as a writer for the Burma Human Rights Yearbook. Her curiosity about human nature, coupled with duel streaks of idealism and Midwestern pragmatism, developed into an ongoing discussion with friends, family and strangers on ethical quandaries. When she's not asking \"Why?\" you might have trouble finding her, as her hobbies include nosing around used bookstores, exploring the world (near and far), meeting new people and occasionally twiddling her thumbs while daydreaming.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/author\/pmangunta"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/198"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}