Share Your Facebook, Twitter Passwords With Your Employer?

February 18, 2014

Big business brother is balking at a proposal that would ban employers from peeking into workers’ private social-media accounts.

The Senate Commerce and Tourism Committee approved a proposal (SB 198) on Monday that would prohibit most employers from asking a worker or job applicant for his or her username, password or other means to access private social-media accounts such as Facebook and Twitter.

Sen. Jeff Clemens, D-Lake Worth, said he sponsored the measure because, under current state law, someone can be denied employment if they refuse to turn over their secret passwords.

“It’s a matter of where we draw the line and I’ve chosen to draw it at you can’t ask for somebody’s password,” said Clemens.

The measure doesn’t prevent an employer from accessing and viewing publicly available information on an employee’s social media account, and an amendment approved Monday exempts business-related accounts from the restrictions.

Similar measures are in place in 16 states, including New Jersey, California, Illinois, Colorado, and Utah.

Clemens said business groups have lobbied fiercely against his plan.

Samantha Padgett, general counsel for the Florida Retail Federation, told the committee the legislature needs to consider if the private messages by employees are conducted on company time or company equipment.

“This is something the employer could be liable for,” Padgett said.

A business also could be liable for the actions of employees if they haven’t done a proper background screening in the hiring process, she said.

“I can’t raise for you a case where this has occurred. I don’t know of one, but it doesn’t seem outside the realm of possibility that an employer could be held for negligent hiring for failing to look into every aspect of the employee they’ve hired,” Padgett said.

The measure also includes a provision that would allow a worker to sue a boss that violated the proposed law, which Padgett threatened would result in more lawsuits against business-owners.

And Associated Industries of Florida lobbyist Brewster Bevis told the committee the proposal is creating “heartburn” for his business members because it could limit internal investigations into any employee’s behavior such as sexual harassment.

But committee Chairwoman Nancy Detert, R-Venice, noted that businesses are already allowed to conduct background checks, pull fingerprints, check credit reports, and do independent Google checks on the individuals being hired. And, Detert argued, businesses already have rules in place for misuse of company equipment.

“We’ve spent a lot of time worried about too much government intervention and cleaning up those rules, now we’ve got too much business in our business as far as I’m concerned,” she said.

“All of our kids and grand kids have been warned that using social media, everything is out there in cyberspace and people can check on it,” she continued. “But if you do your privacy codes right on your Facebook page, that should be like your family dining room table and only for invited guests get to be there, not your employer judging your behavior.”

Clemens’s proposal, which received a 7-2 vote Monday, must still get liked by three more committees before reaching the Senate floor. A House companion (HB 527) has not yet been scheduled for any hearings.

by Jim Turner, The News Service of Florida

Comments

7 Responses to “Share Your Facebook, Twitter Passwords With Your Employer?”

  1. fred on February 19th, 2014 1:10 pm

    It will be interesting to see if this ever gets litigated as a privacy issue. I agree that one’s facebook page can lend great insight, but there are those who believe that if the page is locked to just friends, then it is considered private. Personally, I think if you put something on a public page for the world to see, it’s no longer private. Now, ask me to log in to show you my private info? Interesting dilemma…
    I wonder how many people have constructed “clean” facebook pages for employers to see.

  2. 429SCJ on February 19th, 2014 4:01 am

    Amen Mark T.

    @Netbus “It all boils down to what you are willing to do to get or keep a job”, sounds like what unscrupulous bosses would tell struggling single mothers.

    The beauty of being retired is the fact that I HOLD THE GUN NOW. You ask me for my face book account or a urine sample and you are going to have a bad day.

  3. Mark T. on February 18th, 2014 6:22 pm

    Absolutely Unconstitutional , Period!!! But U.S. citizens just lay down and take it.. Someone once said if you give up your freedom for security you deserve neither !

  4. Netbus on February 18th, 2014 12:14 pm

    Today common practice for recruiters to do is facebook the applicant. If there are pics of gang signs or pics of the applicant past out drunk in their front yard with beer cans around the body, the company will pass on the interview. People forget that they are an extension of the company they work for. I was told my a recruiter that there is a saying they live by “The larger the gauge, the lower the wage”, talking about the ear holes in young people’s ears. I have heard that in a second interview the employer will ask the interviewee to log into their facebook account in front of the interviewer. This is because the applicant has the account locked and was not vieweable before the interview took place. It all comes down to what are you willing to do to get or keep a job.

  5. deBugger on February 18th, 2014 8:05 am

    Good Idea.

    Business is business, but your privacy, passwords, and personal internet activities SHOULD BE no one’s business but your own & those you willingly invite to share them.

  6. Jane on February 18th, 2014 5:56 am

    I would think if they are a productive company they would have too much to do to waste time on this.

  7. 429SCJ on February 18th, 2014 5:04 am

    I would worry more about what employees were stealing from my business as opposed to running rough shod over their private lives.

    They can be making sacrifices to moloch for all I care as long as they are punctual, courteous, groomed and productive.

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News