

Facebook says it may sue employers who demand job applicants' passwords - ch0wn
http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2012/03/facebook-says-it-may-sue-employers-who-demand-job-applicants-passwords.ars

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choward93
If Facebook is serious about setting an example with prodding employers, they
should take it a step further and expose which employers have asked for this
information and make it public. I am sure Glassdoor.com would love to add this
information to their database of reviews and having this viewable by those
looking at prospective employers could be good metric to see how the company
or management actually values their employees. It would be a deciding factor
to me to work somewhere if a company I was interviewing for was trying to gain
access to employee accounts and they were flagged publicly.

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ch0wn
Official Facebook press statement is here:
[https://www.facebook.com/notes/facebook-and-
privacy/protecti...](https://www.facebook.com/notes/facebook-and-
privacy/protecting-your-passwords-and-your-privacy/326598317390057)

HN discussion: <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3745484>

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imr
I can't wait until Facebook issues a press release instructing people to not
log in as their parents when said parents are unable to change their profile
picture or other basic tasks. That is such a bother.

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vannevar
Facebook's statement doesn't actually say they'll sue employers _as
employers_. It says they'll initiate legal action "where appropriate",
"including by shutting down applications that abuse their privileges." That
sounds more like shutting down an app publisher that was collecting employee
logins in order to gain access to social graph data, for instance. Grounds to
sue an employer who wasn't a Facebook API user would be pretty tenuous at
best.

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j_baker
It's certainly great that Facebook is taking a stand for privacy. But this is
clearly more of a PR move than anything else. I mean, will Facebook _really_
sue someone for demanding an applicant's password during an interview?

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mhb
What standing to sue does Facebook have?

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nokcha
Facebook may sue under 18 USC § 1030(g) for unauthorized access to its
computer systems if the employer obtains another person's password and then
accesses that person's account using said password.

It may also sue under state law for tortious interference for inducing users
to breach their contract with Facebook. (It is against Facebook's TOS to share
one's password.)

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j45
I wonder if Facebook might partially be doing this so people don't hesitate to
use their service.

On the other hand, it's nice to see happening if a result actually comes from
it. Too often announcements are like activity -- confused with lasting
results.

~~~
lotu
> I wonder if Facebook might partially be doing this so people don't hesitate
> to use their service.

Of course that's part of the reason, don't act like Facebook wanting to have
happy users who aren't afraid about their information being misused is bad
because it is essential for them to make money.

~~~
j45
Who was acting :)

