Ready to Give Up Your Facebook User Name and Password for a Job?

According to an Associated Press (AP) story online, employers have been asking potential applicants to turn over their Facebook User Name and passwords, or the same information for your email and Twitter accounts to the recruiter to that they can check you out.

Employers Search Social Media Activity

In some cases they do not ask for the information, but they do ask the applicant to log onto to their computer and provide access to the hiring manager. Are you okay with this? If you are like many people on Facebook, or My Space, you certainly would not want your employer, or future employer to read your postings, or those of your friends. There is no requirement that you do so, but you need to be ready to withdraw your application.

Police Monitoring Social Media

Many police agencies are also using this means to gather information on your background. It was reported that most law enforcement applicants allow it, and generally speaking they have nothing to hide. They too have a choice, and in most cases their character is such that reviewing an online profile and postings will not be an issue.

Social Media Risk Exposure

So what are potential employers looking for? They want to see if you are bad mounting your current or past employers. They may be looking to see if there are issue with excessive drinking or alcohol, and possibly many other negative traits that could be a problem for them if they were to be hired. They also may be checking for gang affiliations.

So what happens if you refuse? You may not get the job. In some cases applicants morally refuse to provide the information but do so because they need the job. It was reported that some business’ such as Sears uses a software program to search.

What sort of material would jeopardize job prospects; it depends but could include “inappropriate pictures or relationships with people who are underage, illegal behavior.”

Companies that don’t ask for passwords have taken other steps — such as asking applicants to friend human resource managers or to log in to a company computer during an interview. Once employed, some workers have been required to sign non-disparagement agreements that ban them from talking negatively about an employer on social media.

More companies are also using third-party applications to scour Facebook profiles. One app called “BeKnown” can sometimes access personal profiles, short of wall messages, if a job seeker allows it.

Giving out Facebook login information violates the social network’s terms of service. But those terms have no real legal weight, and experts say the legality of asking for such information remains murky.

The Department of Justice regards it as a federal crime to enter a social networking site in violation of the terms of service, but during recent congressional testimony, the agency said such violations would not be prosecuted.

Beware of what you post especially if you are looking for work. If your social networking profiles are not private, and you re applying for jobs and not getting an interview, you might want to think about these new means of gathering information on people and make some changes.