I think there is. The point isn't that Montana is bad or anything like that. The point is that social networking puts us in a weird light.
All of a sudden, we have this dossier we share with our friends (similar to the memories of going to a party or whatnot) that is now a dossier that companies want to see. Not only that, but there's an interesting legal issue here: are companies allowed to inspect your private property?
Can a company looking to hire someone say, "we'd like to hire you, but first you need to give us the keys to your house so we can rummage around and see if there's anything we don't like in there."? That's a huge invasion of privacy. Likewise, our social networking profiles often have privacy controls for similar reasons - and sets them up to be sued very easily.
For example, (generally speaking) a company isn't allowed to discriminate on religious grounds when hiring. If an HR person asks about it and doesn't hire you, you've got decent grounds to sue. By asking for my social networking password, they can get access to that information without asking for it. Likewise, there's all sorts of stuff on our profiles that you can't ask about during an interview without running afoul of the law.
The broader point is that there's a potential loss of privacy and employment rights here that's very serious. If someone decides not to hire me because of my sexual orientation that they learned from getting my social networking password, that's highly illegal. And this is a way of getting those questions answered that aren't allowed to be asked without it seeming like you're asking them.
Social networks are for "friends". People we want to share certain data with easily. This data is often things we don't want potential employers to see or use in judging us - not because it paints us in a bad light like red solo cups might, but because my sexual orientation, political affiliation, group affiliations, religion, relationship status, etc. are all not things that employers should have the right to use when determining whether I am a good employee.
All of a sudden, we have this dossier we share with our friends (similar to the memories of going to a party or whatnot) that is now a dossier that companies want to see. Not only that, but there's an interesting legal issue here: are companies allowed to inspect your private property?
Can a company looking to hire someone say, "we'd like to hire you, but first you need to give us the keys to your house so we can rummage around and see if there's anything we don't like in there."? That's a huge invasion of privacy. Likewise, our social networking profiles often have privacy controls for similar reasons - and sets them up to be sued very easily.
For example, (generally speaking) a company isn't allowed to discriminate on religious grounds when hiring. If an HR person asks about it and doesn't hire you, you've got decent grounds to sue. By asking for my social networking password, they can get access to that information without asking for it. Likewise, there's all sorts of stuff on our profiles that you can't ask about during an interview without running afoul of the law.
The broader point is that there's a potential loss of privacy and employment rights here that's very serious. If someone decides not to hire me because of my sexual orientation that they learned from getting my social networking password, that's highly illegal. And this is a way of getting those questions answered that aren't allowed to be asked without it seeming like you're asking them.
Social networks are for "friends". People we want to share certain data with easily. This data is often things we don't want potential employers to see or use in judging us - not because it paints us in a bad light like red solo cups might, but because my sexual orientation, political affiliation, group affiliations, religion, relationship status, etc. are all not things that employers should have the right to use when determining whether I am a good employee.