Recently there have been quite a number of reports of employers asking job applicants to hand over their passwords to their Facebook and other social media accounts as part of the hiring process, and it has caused quite a stir amongst the public. Well, it looks like that might come to an end soon. Facebook has issued a simple warning to employers: don’t do it.
In a recent post on the Facebook Privacy blog, Facebook announced that it is serious about protecting the privacy of its users and they should never be forced to give up their passwords. Here’s what Facebook had to say about the situation: “If you are a Facebook user, you should never have to share your password, let anyone access your account, or do anything that might jeopardize the security of your account or violate the privacy of your friends. We have worked really hard at Facebook to give you the tools to control who sees your information.
“Facebook takes your privacy seriously. We’ll take action to protect the privacy and security of our users, whether by engaging policymakers or, where appropriate, by initiating legal action, including by shutting down applications that abuse their privileges.”
While employers have been making use of Facebook to check out potential employees to see if hiring them would be a liability – they should only be allowed to do so with whatever information is publicly available. However in times like these where the job situation is bad, some people are willing to give up their privacy for a shot at a job. What do you think of this controversy? Should employers have access to their potential employees’ Facebook accounts?
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