I feel that if my boss asked for my facebook password, I would be highly offended I think that what I do on my private time while I am not working has nothing to do with my job. I personally feel that my private life is seperate from my work and that my work should have no reason to look into my private life. If companies begin looking into their employees personal lives it is unfair because I think that if your personal life is not effecting your work performance then why does your boss have any right to look at what you do on your own time. I think that the conversations you have on your own time shouldnt be accessable to your employer. I would feel that if my boss felt the need to look into my personal convervations that has nothing to do with my job is ridiculous; if what you do isnt effecting your work performance then why would your boss feel the need even to invade your privacy like that. I feel that people are taking facebook to an entirely new level. I think that companies and colleges are taking facebook to a new level I do not see any reason that companies and colleges feel that its necessary to look into such things. I would understand if a employee's personal life was becoming an issue and effecting how they performed at work then I would agree they have some grounds to look into their personal life but I think that simply doing it for no real reason is absolutly ridiculous. I think unless it is effecting my performance at work then they have no reason to have my facebook password because work and personal life should be kept seperate.

Extra Credit

Facebook Password Debate Stirs Deep Social Fears

Published March 27 2012

            Debra Donston-Miller talks about companies that ask for Facebook credentials in this article. She says that if an employer asks for your Facebook user name and password in an interview, you should walk away. These companies are companies that are living in the “Dark Ages”. Giving them this type of information is like giving them the keys to your home. Facebook and other social media websites have strict privacy uses for a reason. The article also mentions that these acts form companies do not violate any laws.

            In my opinion, I do not like companies that ask for social media credentials. I would not want to work for such a company because I feel like they will want to know all personal information that they do not need to know. A person has a right to keep things private. An employee’s social media will not harm a company. Even high-level employees have things they should not have online. As long as they do their job right and give it 100%, companies should not care what they have on social media networks.

Teens Today

           

Teenagers today will be most affected by these companies. Many teenagers post random pictures showing a good memory. Good memories in their minds might be of them partying, drinking, or doing stupid teenage things. They document their lives online without thinking about it. I do not think a company that is hiring should let these past documentations effect the decision on hiring.

What It Means For Potential Employees

           

            Potential employees working for a company that asks for such nonsense will want to leave. No one wants to work for a dictatorship type company. An employee will feel like they cannot trust to stay in the company. “What if they see this?” – this question will be stuck in their mind everyday. Employees will be distracted and go on Facebook regularly to check if anyone posted something unnecessary on their wall. Social media is suppose to be a website for networking and having fun and sharing experiences. Companies should not care about Facebook or any other social media website because it is a waste of time looking through them.

Facebook Password Rights

Is it okay if your boss asks for your Facebook password?

More and more employers are now asking for their employees Facebook password in order to make sure their messages, wall posts and photos are appropriate. This is going against the employees privacy rights and should not feel threatened to hand over their password to their employer.  Employees in an interview feel obligated to give over their password if they really need the job and feel like they will not receive the job if they refuse to give up their password. 


In the following article, "ACLU: Facebook password isn't your boss' business", by Doug Gross on March 22nd, 2012, the American Civil Labor Union is that more and more job employers are asking for social networking passwords. The ACLU also highly believe that it is an invasion of privacy and employers have no right to do such a thing. Robert Collins, a correctional officer, from Baltimore area had his own recent problem when his employer was asking for his Facebook password because his employer wanted to make sure he was not part of any gangs or do any other illegal activities. Collins felt obligated to give up his password because he really needs to keep his job. Another case is Justin Bassett that he was asked for a password during an interview and refused to give it to the interviewer. The article also states that it may be your Facebook password now that employers ask for, but it may be your house key or reading your mail. Reading your private Facebook messages is practically reading your personal mail which is illegal. Also, giving away your Facebook password is also against the privacy rules that you agreed with on Facebook.

There has been a lot of talk about how a person will not get a job if they have pictures of drinking, doing drugs  or statuses about drinking or smoking up on their Facebook because employers will look at that stuff before hiring you. I do not find this wrong because they are looking at stuff that you made public and did not need your Facebook password to look at it. Employers have every right to "Facebook creep" but they have no right to your password. 

Facebook Password isn't your boss business!

The article I’m writing about is called Facebook Password isn’t your boss business. CNN Reporter Doug Gross wrote this on March 22nd 2012. The article talks about how bosses ask for possible employee’s passwords to networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, etc. to get a look into them and what they do. The article also talks about a requirement that some companies are doing like giving your password to be considered for employment. They even go as far as making you “friend” people from the company. An attorney said it is a “violation of privacy” and “people are entitled to their own private lives”. A case where a man was looking to get re-instated as a corrections officer in Baltimore got asked to give up his password. The article showed me a lot about Facebook and the business world that I don’t already know and I loved reading it. The man, from Baltimore, that was looking to get re-instated infuriated me because of the unnecessary steps taken to get his job. The man he went to to get re-instated he gave his password to, then the man logged into his Facebook right in front of him. I found this improper. “I’m looking through your messages, on your wall, and your photos to see if you are in a gang or have any gang affiliation.” Employers shouldn’t be looking into peoples Facebook accounts it is an invasion of privacy and rights. This man was a corrections officer before; he shouldn’t have had to jump through so many hurdles to get the position again. This new way to determine eligibility for a job is ridiculous. Facebook shouldn’t be allowed to determine if someone gets a job. This look on getting a job is a bit ridiculous. I wouldn’t give my own Facebook password to an employer, I wouldn’t even consider it. If I ever was asked I would just walk out of the job interview, or I would ask the employer why my personal account is needed for a business job interview. If he or she proceeded to say that it was necessary I would only login in front of them, I wouldn’t give them my password.

March Madness and Social Networking

I picked the “March Madness and Social Networking” video where Eric Lundquist interviews Butch Stearns on how sports teams use social networking. This video was published in 2010 by UBM TechWeb. They discuss how businesses use social networking to get a crows around what there trying to do and weather it works or not. Butch talked about how every sports team starts out with a basic group of people that follow them called fans. Here in Boston you have Sports nation for the red sox and then you also have events which are your games. At the games they do events that market off something such as prizes or tickets so that it gets peoples interests. They also do it during the game so that they get all the people’s attention who attends the game. It’s all about strategy and when to get people’s attention. They say that even though when the season ends, that doesn’t mean you should stop talking about that team or making events that support them. For example they talk about the Colts and how their quarterback Paten Manning is best known both on and off the field for everything he has done. That’s how every athlete should be and they should give back to their fans on the off season. By doing that it makes you a well-rounded athlete and people will respect you way more. They say that the best way to reach out to your fans is on a personal level instead of a group press release; instead you should reach out to the fans on an individual level and actually have a conversation with them about something that’s going on with the team. They said don’t do what LeBron did when he help a one on one conference and told the interviewer that he was taking his talent to South beach. Do what Manning did when he was going to leave he thanked everyone for the time that he had with the Colts and talked to his fan base personally. Also you can get your business out on twitter because that’s a great social media to get news and ideas out there. Use social media because it can help your cause or your event and use it to your advantage.

Extra Credit Blog

For my extra credit blog I decided to use the article A Giant Undersea Cable Makes the Internet a Split-second Faster. This article was written by David Goldman on March 30, 2012. I picked this article because the title quickly grabbed my attention and I really wanted to learn more on this new discovery. The reason why people can connect to each other’s websites and Skype with one another from every corner of the world is that every continent is actually connected together. With a grouping of cables no larger than one’s home broadband connection, stretch around the bottom of the sea to link together all around the globe. What I find most interesting is that I did not know about this earlier. This is so fascinating and shows that our world is moving in a direction of faster and more efficient energy and technology. There are three companies that are in the course of developing cable networks that will connect London to Tokyo through the polar ice cap. The cables have 10 gigabit-per-second speeds which is 2,000 times faster than your home internet connection. My only question about this is that are we depending all of our internet access on these underwater cables? What if something happens and it gets disconnected, will we all lose power to the internet? According to the article an incident just happened which affected the web. A ship, a little over a month ago, cut services for a large amount of the country when it dropped an anchor on the coast of Kenya. A sudden drop in availability in services in Kenya was noticed by Google. The cables are read on GPS devices which help ships know what spaces to avoid in the ocean when they are out on sea so they do not damage these cords. Also there are outsourced companies that are ready at any time to repair damages that may happen. Having these multiple connecting cables to continents from different locations will let the internet not be disrupted if it is snapped. So if one cable does snap you will still be able to Skype with a friend from around the world.

Password isn't your bosses

The article that I have chosen is ACLU: Facebook Password isn't your boss' business. This article was written by CNN writer Doug Gross. In this article personal privacy towards social media is targeted. The point of this article is that when getting a new job, your boss is now not able to access your social media accounts because of invasion of privacy laws. The main two social media sites that are being targeted are obviously the two most popular: Facebook and Twitter.
A man by the name of Robert Collins from Baltimore says that he was trying to get a job at a company he used to work for. During this the company told him that he had to give them his password to his Facebook. The only reason why he did it was because he really needed the job. From this Robert Collins watched while his boss pulled up his Facebook. He did not like this and asked why he was doing it. The boss said that it was to make sure he wasn't affiliated with any gangs or gang members. This case shows us that with new jobs your lifestyle is a big factor on which jobs you're going to get. I can understand how a company doesn't want any gang members or anyone affiliated with gang members, but this should not be how they go about it. Instead of hacking an employees Facebook to find out this information the company should make the employee sign a contract that states "I'm not affiliated nor have ever been in a gang and I do not know anyone in a gang". This way you don't invade the employees personal life because all your doing is finding out about the persons life.
Another aspect of not giving away your password is pointed out by Doug Gross, he says that in the Facebook Terms of Services area you are not able to share your password. Basically in this article Doug Gross is just pointing out facts that say personal privacy is an issue and companies shouldn't be able to look at your social media accounts if you don't want them to see them. This is completely understandable and reasonable. This gives the people their 4th amendment rights.