Employers Asking for Facebook Passwords

I just saw this charming little story and I feel compelled to give my two cents on it. First of all, I used to have a Facebook page. I had it deleted. It was quite the process to get it deleted, but that is another story for another time. People tell you that "oh you need to have a Facebook account". Trust me, no you don't. I do kind of funny that I get friend requests from people who would never give me the time of day in high school and I thus barely said two sentences to. That never ceases to be funny.

I enjoy my privacy and I don't feel it is the right of others to butt into what I am doing during my private time. And I was appalled but honestly not too surprised when the news came out that job seekers are being asked for their Facebook account passwords.

Potential Employees Asked for Facebook Passwords; A Gross Violation of Privacy

I'll tell you this much right here. Giving anyone your password is a huge no-no no matter what the circumstances. It is one of the first things taught in Internet common sense class. You never share personal details with any people regarding passwords or log in names or whatever. Yet there are employers who during job interviews are asking people for their Facebook passwords.

Trusting people with personal information is a foolish thing to do. Employers ask you for your social security number for many jobs and that is really blowing past a rather sacred line of privacy. If you want to know the real reason why people get their identity stolen, it is because they have no choice but to give personal information out to employers if they want a job, and security tends to be rather hit and miss. All it takes is one vengeful employee who has access to that information to sell it to the right buyer. Try and sleep soundly at night just thinking about how you could be one wrong move by your place of work angering the wrong person to getting your identity stolen.

I personally wish that I could dial back the hands of time, back when things were not so wide open on the Internet. Facebook and social networking in general has really opened a Pandora's Box of issues, where it is a gateway from your private life into the public venue. And some people don't have the sense that there are certain things that they should not say over a social networking, even if there were not employers who would like to monitor our every move.

Also a word to the wise. Do not ever log into a social network from a public place. Especially your job. No doubt that is one way where they keep tabs on you, they allow you to do pretty much whatever you want on the Internet, so they can have a venue to spy on you.

Of course, if you work for a corporation in today's world, you're part of a soulless entity, where you lose all individual thought and feeling, and are just another zombie out for a paycheck. So they have you by the throat. You need the job after all, the job needs you. That is why I encourage people to find a way to work for themselves the first chance they get. The big problem is that most people don't have the motivation and the discipline to do so. And many of those who do are way over their heads.

Asking for Facebook passwords at a job interview, that's just one step away from having a security camera mounted in your home. For those who say you have nothing to hide, that's not the point. You could live the cleanest, most perfect, most flawless(and quite boring) lifestyle and it is the sheer principle of people butting their noses into your personal business. It is not bringing the problems from the office home that is the problem like it was back in the day, it is bringing the home into office through social networking.