Last fall, I was a candidate for a law enforcement job. During the orientation meeting, the background investigator outright told us that, if we make it to the background interviews, do not be surprised if there's a laptop on the table - they're going to ask us to log into our Facebook account. He said either that or we would be contacted and asked to temporarily set our profiles to public for the investigator to review. He said they would be looking for any evidence of inappropriate behavior (smoking pot, etc) and to see what kind of people we have on our friends list. They told us, "If there's something you don't want us to see, delete it now. You've been given fair warning."

.....Kelly :)

Well law enforcement or clergy I think could be held to a bit different standard because your personal life is so critical to your public one. But having you log in for them to see is NOT asking you for your password.

And regarding the LinkedIn thing, it wouldn't surprise me that the boss is just lazy and trying to piggyback on your work. The fact that your other co-workers haven't yet figured out that LinkedIn should almost be mandatory is a different thing. I can't say too much. Until my husband's recent job search began, I really didn't get it about LinkedIn either.

I'd treat an employer who asks for my Facebook password the same way as I'd treat a SO who asks for one: I'd tell them it's none of their business. If it's in a controlled situation, considering that I have nothing to hide, I'll log in in front of them, but log out immediately afterwards.

Anyone who insists too hard effectively gets a middle finger from me.

Yes, I could see this in a security clearance type of situation also. I had a card on my door recently from someone doing a security clearance background check on a neighbor that I don't even know. The card had the neighbor's name, said he had applied for a job with the FBI or something (don't remember, didn't pay that much attention) and if I knew him I should call the number on the business card.

See, to me, this can foster laziness. "Oh well, he didn't have anything on his Facebook so he must be OK." What they don't know is he drops acid on a nightly basis but is smart enough to not have a camera anywhere nearby.

And as far as the "what kind of people we have on our friends list" - that just sounds like code for racism/religious intolerance etc.

No way would I ever give this information to a potential employer...or anyone else for that matter. My password is a secret. Plus, if my profile is not public to begin with, and I have tight privacy controls, my employer has no need to be concerned about me harming the company's public reputation. I can't imagine my employer ever asking me for this information (or asking me to let them browse my profile after I logged in for them), and I'm pretty high up at a PR firm! I feel so strongly about this that if my employer suddenly issued a policy tomorrow stating that everyone must grant them access to our profile - or "friend" them - I would probably resign. I am Facebook friends with some of my coworkers, but not anyone in HR or the executives, and I never friend any of my clients.

I am mostly concerned about the political or religious identifiers that I have on Facebook. In an interview I would never discuss my feelings on Rick Santorum, but they are on Facebook. The same is true with the number of children I have or their ages. This allows employers to discriminate on things that they never would be able to normally.
On the other hand, many employers have been burned when racy photos of their employees were made public. I can see how they would want to know beforehand, but it might just be better to make a company policy about social networking for employees.

^^
From yahoo news
http://news.yahoo.com/facebook-warns...163806953.html

Facebook standing up for privacy? Wow.

This story is a pretty good example of how online profiles can ruin law enforcement officers and is the reason many of us either don't have online profiles or keep the ones we have plain vanilla/non offensive.


http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/11/nyregion/11about.html

Shocking, isn't it?

Not so shocking if you think about it. If people start deleting accounts out of fear of this happening to them, Facebook loses money or even goes out of business.

Exactly. This is a business-savvy position for Facebook.

I don't have a problem with an employer asking to view my facebook. I do have a problem with them demanding that we be friends and of course with anyone asking for my password. I'm going to be a teacher so my facebook is pretty clean. Anything PG-13 has been set so that only certain people can see it. I would never, ever friend students or their parents (and will likely have a professional profile for that kind of communication with no personal information). I friend people I want to communicate socially with. IMO this does not have to include employers. I'm currently friends with employers on facebook, but they're from summer jobs and camp counselor jobs. They can't see my entire profile. Again, if they asked, I would allow them to view it. But I personally WANT that professional separation between employer and employee, so I do not treat them as friends, especially on facebook.

I understand why employers feel the need to check. And I understand that certain professionals (law enforcement, clergy, teachers, etc.) receive a little more scrutiny. But passwords? Forced friending? Not ok, IMO.