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.