My parents have always made it very clear to me: do not share your password for Facebook, e-mail, or school with ANYONE. Not your best friend or your sibling. Your password is personal, and it is for you and ONLY you. If your password ends up in the wrong hands, the consequences could be horrible and follow you your whole life. So basically, be careful.
With this notion so instilled in my brain, I was shocked to find out that numerous colleges and employers actually demand that prospective students/employees hand over their usernames and passwords so that the colleges and employers can investigate the students'/employees' online activities as part of the application process. It is not a choice; there is no option. No password equals a rejected application.
A police department in North Carolina demanded a username and password in order to apply for a clerical job. The Maryland Department of Corrections also asked applicants to turn in their password and username. However, in response to this example, the ACLU stepped in and declared it unconstitutional.
Eric Zorn, a blogger for the Chicago Tribune, wrote a brief post on this topic. He feels that requiring a password is overstepping a boundary of privacy that most people feel comfortable with. I agree with Zorn. While I understand a college's or employer's interest in knowing an applicant's basic background, I think that requiring them to turn in a password is a complete invasion of privacy.
Zorn makes a good point. "If employers really want to find out about an applicant's social media presence, they can run a Google search like anybody else." Information on Google is public to everyone; therefore, if employers find something they don't like from a Google search, at least they obtained the information in the same way anyone else could. Since entering an applicant's e-mail or Facebook account is not something that anyone can do easily, if an employer were to find something unsatisfactory, it wouldn't be fair because the rest of the public doesn't have access to that kind of information.
I think this is an outrageous rule. Employers should not be able to receive special privileges that allow them to see more than the public can. A password is a private piece of information, and requiring its disclosure oversteps all reasonable boundaries. And frequently a person's Facebook or Twitter password is the same as their password for banking or credit cards, so if that password fell into the wrong hands or wasn't safeguarded properly by the employer or college, it could lead to financial disaster. The ACLU is working to pass laws that would make this type of request illegal.
If right now a password is required for applications, what will it be in 10 years? Are we on a path to destroy our privacy completely?
Elise, I completely agree! Too often people just accept stuff like this from companies and schools because they are the powerless people in that situation. I didn't even know the extent of it until your post. I think giving someone the password to your computer or facebook or whatever is pretty much as invasive as giving someone the key to your house, which also poses an interesting idea. Is it time to reconsider all the things we put on the internet? Do we trust the internet more than we should?
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