

My Facebook Account is Mine, not Yours - luciantodea
http://www.soft32.com/blog/platforms/web/my-facebook-account-is-mine-not-yours/

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signalsignal
No, your Facebook account belongs to Facebook. The content you post belongs to
you with distribution rights granted to Facebook. Additionally free speech is
protected from the government's interference, nothing is in the Constitution
about protection from private enterprises.

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readme
I came here just for this comment.

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signalsignal
Thanks for the validation. I don't know if it is the blog-spam that infests
all of these types of forums, or if it that people really think a for-profit
corporation owes them free stuff in perpetuity. PR people, though, call me
"cynical" ;)

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StavrosK
> The LAST time I checked, this was still America.

As a foreigner, when I read this, I think "so why are you surprised?"

Nationalism really irks me.

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talmand
I don't understand, are you saying he shouldn't be surprised such things
happen in the US? If so, I would agree since things like that happen all the
time.

What's wrong with nationalism exactly? Since, like most things, there are
various degrees of nationalism do you dislike every example of it? If I like
the country I live in but disagree with some of its policies, am I still an
irksome person in your eyes?

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ekianjo
nationalism : (a definition I picked): "a sentiment based on common cultural
characteristics that binds a population and often produces a policy of
national independence or separatism."

In other words, Nationalism is a big myth. There are no common characteristics
(or then, VERY few) that everyone shares in one country, let alone in a single
village. This is an idea created by politicians to turn one country's people
against others. Liking the country you live in does not equal to nationalism,
God forbid.

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talmand
What was I downvoted for? I had a legitimate question.

Anyway.

I see what you're saying now and I would have to tend to agree if that is your
definition.

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stephengillie
IANAL, but it sounds like Facebook's own TOS require them to close the account
of users who have given away their password, whether to an employer, spouse,
friend, or anyone else. Obviously Facebook would be killing its' advertising
profits with that course of action, given the number of accounts that would
purportedly need to be closed.

Asking for access to a prospective employee's Facebook seems like asking for
access to their car trunk or their home bathroom. Why don't companies try
this?

Is your Facebook account your personal property? What about your information
after you've placed it on Facebook?

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raganwald

      Asking for access to a prospective employee's Facebook seems
      like asking for access to their car trunk or their home bathroom*
    

A peripherally related topic, but how is asking for a drug test _unlike_
asking for access to my home bathroom?

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archivator
A drug test is a positive/negative thing where there are well-defined margins
and error bars. The employer can say with reasonable certainty that X is a
drug user and hence pass judgement on that.

A Facebook login is NOT a positive/negative test - it's more of a "does this
person behave well in general" which is a highly subjective measure. What's
worse, it's conflating the private and work spheres and letting the employer
pass judgement on X's personal life, regardless of how well X can
compartmentalize.

The key difference is that drug users usually can't compartmentalize their
addiction. Most people can usually compartmentalize their social behaviour.
"Usually" is the key word here - there are always extreme counter-examples.

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dutchbrit
Time to start denying you have a Facebook account all together, hook it up to
a specially made email account for Facebook, don't add a profile picture &
don't add friends from work to your network I guess.. Where's the world coming
to?!

I might be mistaken - but doesn't this break the United Nations Agreements on
Human Rights?

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Tichy
Could employers ask me for my password by default? I mean would it be legal
reason to fire me if I not give it to them? Coming from Germany, I am not
sure, here apparently it is not so easy to fire somebody, but in the US it
might be so easy that it doesn't matter. That is, they don't have to give a
reason, which means not getting a password could be a reason?

Otherwise I wonder if in the future it will be one more thing to watch out for
in contracts.

Another aspect: if an employer would be willing to fire you over such a thing,
your profession is probably not in very high demand and you should consider
switching.

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CWuestefeld
As far as I can see, this is just a lot of political posturing. Such a law
would have little impact, because the feared scenario is already against the
rule. It violates the Facebook T&C for both the account owner to share the
password, and for the prospective employer to use it. And surely it's already
illegal for an employer to require a candidate employee to violate such an
agreement as a condition of employment.

Just because something needs to be done does not mean that we need to have the
government do it.

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kstenerud
"Don’t get me wrong. I’m not going to go on some freakin’ tirade here about
first or fourth amendment rights. "

...

"The LAST time I checked, this was still America. The last time I checked, I
was afforded the right to speak my mind (First Amendment). The last time I
checked, I was protected from unlawful search and seizure or demands on my
privacy (Fourth Amendment)."

Umm...

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xiaomei
Thoughts on this?

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3797771>

