California and Illinois on Tuesday joined four others in becoming the union’s only states barring employers from demanding that employees fork over their social-media passwords.
Congress unsurprisingly couldn’t muster the wherewithal to approve the Password Protection Act of 2012, so a handful of states have taken it upon themselves.
The new laws come amid reports nationwide that employers were demanding access to their employees’ or potential employees’ personal, non-public data on Facebook, Twitter and other social-media accounts.
Facebook, too, said in March that it noticed an increase in complaints about employers demanding “inappropriate access” to Facebook accounts.
California’s and Illinois’ laws took force Tuesday, the first day of the year. Michigan’s and New Jersey’s became active last month and Maryland’s, in October. Delaware’s measure became law in July.
California Assemblywoman Nora Campos, a Democrat from San Jose, said when the Golden State’s measure unanimously passed the California Assembly in May, that AB 1844 would protect Californians from snooping employers.
“Our social-media accounts offer views into our personal lives and expose information that would be inappropriate to discuss during a job interview due to the inherent risk of creating biases in the minds of employers,” Campos said. “In order to continue to minimize the threat of bias and discrimination in the workplace and the hiring process, California must continue to evolve its privacy protections to keep pace with advancing technology.”
None of the measures prohibit employers from reviewing what their employees or potential hires publicly post to social-media accounts.
Homepage Photo: SimonQ / Flickr
David Kravets is a senior staff writer for Wired.com and founder of the fake news site TheYellowDailyNews.com. He's a dad of two boys and has been a reporter since the manual typewriter days.
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6 States Bar Employers From Demanding Facebook Passwords
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6 States Bar Employers From Demanding Facebook Passwords
