Should You Ask Your Employees for Their Facebook Passwords?
Social media is such a huge part of society now that as an employer you’ve probably checked out the Facebook profiles of all your employees or potential hires at one time or another. Maybe you even monitor them regularly. But with such concern over privacy, most people have gotten wise and adjusted their settings so no one but their “friends” can see the majority of their Facebook info and posts.
If you really want to know what your employees are doing on their Facebook profiles, what can you do if they’ve hidden everything from public view? Some employers are going further in their quest for social media monitoring, and they’re asking employees for their Facebook passwords. Should you do this?
Is It Legal?
Technically, yes. Employers who ask for Facebook passwords aren’t extremely popular around the water cooler. If you’re considering asking them, you probably don’t care too much about your reputation. But you should care about any potential legal ramifications, and right now there are none. Colorado Representative Ed Perlmutter recently proposed legislation to make it illegal for employers to require the Facebook passwords of their employees, and it was defeated. While Facebook says it’s a violation of its Terms of Service, Facebook can’t arrest you or shut down your business.
What Will You Gain?
If you require your employees’ Facebook passwords, how will you really benefit from being able to read their messages and see their wall posts? Do their personal interactions and use of Facebook really affect the quality or integrity of their work for you? Depending on their position, it might, but for most employees their social media usage isn’t going to make a big difference for you. In fact, most people already censor their activity online to be appropriate for their boss’ eyes, just in case, so you’re not likely to uncover anything salacious.
How Would It Work?
You can’t just ask all your employees to give up their Facebook passwords and let that be the end of it. There are lots of potential complications you need to consider. Will you fire anyone who doesn’t comply? Is that legal? And while the majority of people have Facebook accounts, some lone wolves still don’t. How can you enforce your rules fairly when some people might not even have a Facebook password? And once you have their passwords, what’s to stop them from changing their passwords tomorrow?
What About Privacy and Protection?
In the world of social media and the Internet, passwords are extremely personal, valuable, and private. Everyone knows that giving out your password means you’re putting your security and identity at risk. It seems to be a bit unfair to ask your employees to trust you with something so sacred. How can you ensure them that their password and profiles are safe with you? Can you really guarantee that the information won’t fall into the wrong hands?
After all this, if you still believe asking employees for their Facebook passwords is the way to go, tread lightly. There’s a line between work lives and personal lives, and it might be in your best interest not to cross it.
Mark Weatherford is a high school english teacher and published author who enjoys blogging in his spare time. He is also a grammar fanatic and he often suggests his students check their work using a grammar checker. Mark is also a fanatic of frozen food as he is a terrible cook.
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May it be legal or not, I think employers should not ask for their employees their Facebook passwords. For one, it is none of the employers business of what the employees are doing in their own private lives. What the employees are doing in their private lives isn’t paid by the employer, so they shouldn’t interfere.
No, because this is a personal information, we do not need to force them to ask their password.
It is not their business so why they have right to ask their employees about their personal facebook or other social media account’s password.
in my opinion, no-one has the right to know your password, employees having to give their Facebook passwords out is crazy, the whole idea of a password is so that you can keep your stuff private and no-one can steal your personal details
I totally disagree on the idea that employers now a days can just ask for such information from the employees. This will defeat the purpose of privacy setting if your boss can ask for your password and you don’t have right not to give them or else you’ll be fired!
No, I don’t believe that they should ask. Facebook is a private, personal matter. Users should always know that whatever they post, no matter what, can be public so they should be wary of what they do post.
But no. I don’t believe that passwords HAVE to be given.
That’s quite like asking for my home keys. Now, is there any company practising this and any employees willing to comply?