Susan: Thanks for the well-thought-out reply. I have continued to think about this as well. Sharing my password might mean I have nothing to hide, but being asked to do so offends me on many levels. I agree that what someone can tell about you from Facebook can be distorted. I actually believe the professional should remain separate from the personal and vice versa. But the genie is already out of the bottle. People feel entitled to this information and the reluctance to share it now raises suspicion. It is a very, very disturbing trend.
The job applicant must provide written authorization before an employer can request a credit report. Under the Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), an applicant has a series of additional rights. If an employer intends not to hire someone based upon information in the credit report, then the applicant must first receive a copy of the report and statement of rights. The applicant has a right to review the credit report and to dispute any information believed to be inaccurate or incomplete. This right applies even if the employer had additional reasons not to hire the person or even if an applicant has excellent credit, but the employer has other concerns based upon the credit report, such as a reported high debt level. It may be, for example, that the debt level is overstated in the report. If a final decision is made, an applicant is entitled to a second confirming letter. In California, job applicants must also be given the opportunity to request a copy of the report free of charge if the employer obtains it.
You know what's the best? If you have some private information you want to keep private you just keep it for yourself. Not about social media, but I have a recent example. A person from the yellow pages, or something like that, called me to add my information on the new issue. I was not interested, and said it so. He kept insisting, asking qiuestions, when he got to the point where I saw no point in giving him the information he was asking for, for what he said he was representing I told him straightaway that I was not going to answer that because it was not his business what I do with my business.
Some people simply don't get the definition of privacy and think they can happily go asking all sorts of questions.
Checking out applicants' credit history is simply too much for my liking. It's no one's business what a person does with his salary, not even the employer has the right to determine what the employees have to do with their money.
I believe it's as invasive as demanding access to all personal posts. There are plenty of phycodiagnosis tests to know about almost everything the employer needs to know for X position.
Despite I don't have a reason for not sharing my Facebook password I wonder how comfortable I would feel knowing and believing it's a violation to my privacy. Somewhere, on one or maybe two social networks, I have written: What I don't tell it's no one's business. This is mainly because I like to keep some things to myself, and see no point in broadcasting some information. I tell you, nothing that the FBI would like to spend hours investigating; the information can be my date of birth or where I went last weekend or who is my best friend or where I am going to be tomorrow evening. I simply hate broadcasting information that I believe it's no one's business.
Then as have the information in the category of the way I think, what I think, and why I think this or that. In this case, I like to tell, write, post, etc. without worrying if someone out there is going to like what I say or not. Why is this? Because I believe in what I think and not saying what I think would be like betraying myself, wouldn't it? And, I don't believe anything of what I think can make any trouble. So I think I am pretty lucky in this matter. I can just be myself without any worry. :)
Something I have been thinking about, though, is how all this privacy thing, having colleges, companies, etc asking you for your Facebook password can influence in the distortion of the person's real Self, personality, way of thinking, communicating, and expressing herself or himself. Would it be that at some point we are not going to be able to trust anyone anymore because we are not going to really know if the public/social image is the mirrow of the person or if it is just something created to please certain business or college? Well, I wouldn't like that. By all means I believe the best we can do is being ourselves and respecting our freedon of speech and freedom of thinking.
@pocharle I've heard that some employers check out applicant credit history, but they may justify that by saying they want to minimize risks that could be associated with people who get into heavy debt. Insurance companies also factor credit into their assessment of driver risk. But that is not quite as invasive as demanding access to all personal posts.
Isnt this a breech of privacy rights of the applicants ? I have also seen such notices but I ignore them since its not ethical. I think we sould implement a law to stop these kind of things. It should not fall under the law of Privacy right as it is right now because nobody cares for it.
That seems a little too invasive. Next, they'll ask for your online banking account information to monitor HOW you spend your salary/pay. Doesn't this seem like a precursor for litigation??
@prabhakar_deosthali I agree. A person has a right to keep communications of a personal kind limited. If s/he posted it on FB for friends only, that means it is not something that concerns the individual's professional identity and so none of the compnay's business. It should have no more right to that than it does to a person's personal email.
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Join EBN contributor Jennifer Baljko on Thursday August 23, 2012, at 11:00 a.m. EST for a live chat on how electronic manufacturers in Thailand have shored up their supply chain to reduce the impact of future natural disasters.
Peter Drucker famously said "Trying to predict the future is like trying to drive down a country road at night with no lights while looking out the back window." Yet in the razor's-edge world of electronics—with a lean supply chain and just-in-time demands—the need to know the future is vital.
While no one really can accurately predict the future, we can take guidance from another Drucker saying which is the best way to predict the future is to create it.
You've heard the saying "the No. 1 supply chain risk is your people." That hasn't always been the case. But today's complex global supply chain requires a new type of multitalented employee. It's one who understands, finance, marketing, economics, is savvy with technology, graceful with relationships and can think analytically.
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