California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill this week banning employers to ask for employees for their Facebook passwords. It would make asking for passwords illegal. I still dont understand why employers would want to spy on your personal time. Unless you weer using Facebook during work hours.
As a result, bosses in California cannot demand that workers turn over passwords for online accounts or punish them if they refuse to do so. The bill also applies to educational institutions and students, and requires non-profits to post their social media privacy policies online.
State Senator Leland Yee, a San Francisco Democrat, authored the bill and was on KQED radio earlier this year to discuss why her bill was necessary. She pointed to the weak job market, which might prompt those desperate for a job to give in to a boss’s demand for private online information.
“When you do, if fact, open up your social media accounts, all kinds of personal information may be there. But information that, by law, no employer can, in fact, get your religion, sexual orientation, other kinds of personal, private information are out of bounds by both state law and federal law,” she said at the time. “So, it’s not just simply about getting information. There are confidential, protected information that employers will be getting, and that’s wrong.”
The issue made headlines earlier this year when it was reported that some employers were asking workers or applicants to hand over their Facebook passwords or allow employers to look over their shoulders as they clicked through their accounts. The publicity over the issue prompted Facebook to step up and say the practice was against its terms of service.
[pcmag]
