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Apply For A Job - Hand Over Your Net Usernames & Passwords

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If you apply for a job with City of Bozeman, Montana - a mid-sized burg halfway across these United States - you're forced to surrender usernames and passwords for every account you've set up with websites of the "social networking" variety.

According to the City, that includes everything from Facebook and MySpace to YouTube to, well, Yahoo! and Google.

"Please list any and all, current personal or business websites, web pages or memberships on any Internet-based chat rooms, social clubs or forums, to include, but not limited to: Facebook, Google, Yahoo, YouTube.com, MySpace, etc.," reads a waiver form that allows the City to investigate a job applicant's "background, references, character, past employment, education, credit history, criminal or police records."

Then it asks for usernames and passwords.

With most websites, sharing log-in information is verboten. "You will not share your password, let anyone else access your account, or do anything else that might jeopardize the security of your account," reads the Facebook EULA. "You will not transfer your account to anyone without first getting our written permission."

And then there's the question of whether the City of Bozeman has overlooked the great American right to privacy.

Speaking with a local Montana TV news station, City attorney Greg Sullivan says Bozeman takes privacy seriously. But he defends the burg's log-in grab. "So, we have positions ranging from fire and police, which require people of high integrity for those positions, all the way down to the lifeguards and the folks that work in city hall here. So we do those types of investigations to make sure the people that we hire have the highest moral character and are a good fit for the City," he said.

Ah, but if I hand over my Facebook user name and password, I'm also handing over an endless stream of information posted by my Facebook "friends."

"You know, I can understand that concern," Sullivan said. "One thing that's important for folks to understand about what we look for is none of the things that the federal constitution lists as protected things. We don't use those. We're not putting out this broad brush stroke of trying to find out all kinds of information about the person that we're not able to use or shouldn't use in the hiring process."

Sullivan did not respond to our request for comment. Talking with the news station, he said that the City would consider changing its policy so that job seekers would only be required to sign up the City as a "friend" on sites like Facebook. And he said that no job seeker has ever rescinded their application after reading the wavier form.

But that's because people rarely recognize a threat to their own privacy. Even if the City claims that privacy will be respected, you're handing your usernames and passwords to individual City workers. And individual workers have minds of their own.

Updated

Facebook is not pleased with Bozeman situation and plans to contact the City. "This is a violation of Facebook’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, which received feedback from users and was ultimately approved in a site-wide vote," the company tells us. "Our policies prohibit those who use the service from soliciting login information or accessing an account that belongs to someone else. In addition to violating Facebook’s policies, we think this practice violates personal privacy, and we plan to reach out to the City of Bozeman to discuss it with them."

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OMG there is now way im handing anything over to anyone.

Its plain and simple ivasion of our privacy to do so.

next thing you know bill collectors will be harrasing pople on all of the above that is mention in the article.
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† Koma †
If YOu Don't Think It's Possable!! It's Acually A Reality!!The best way to predict the future is to invent it. Alan Kay!!
Ya Don't Know The signal Till Ya Ride It!!
Voice Break's There's Trouble!!!!

reply to SUMware

reply to SUMware
Simple solution: don't tell the city you have accounts with any of the named services. How are they going to know the difference?
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Pain is weakness leaving the body

reply to SUMware
What's the unemployment rate around Bozeman Montana? This sounds like an employer (the City) trying to take unfair advantage of a down economy. In good times most people would just say "no" to that requirement.

reply to SUMware
" Hand Over Your Net Usernames & Passwords "

Got to be illegal, and the person/s responsible for ordering/overseeing this should be kicked and retrained.

No doubt this will be overturned sooner or later. Compensation anyone ?

People shouldn't have profiles with thier real details, then they wouldn't have to be concerned about any busybodies etc googling etc for info on tem.

reply to wolfy339

reply to SUMware
I would never give them that info as it is an invasion of privacy and just wrong. I hope they get in serious trouble by trying to steal every ones login info. A Google search shows nothing on me either, but that is not the point here. I don't believe these idiots can get away with this for very long. Next thing they will ask applicants to bring all your actual mail in so they can read all that too.

reply to Rocky67

Virtually every site I use from DSLR to my bank ask for a screen or login name that can be most anything. I notice that very few members here, including you, use their real life name to sign in.
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Pain is weakness leaving the body

reply to SUMware
Aside from sites where I upload a resumé, I've rarely if ever put my real name online, and certainly not for GMail, Yahoo, YouTube, et al., and I don't even have a Facebook or MySpace account.

I'd probably fill in the blank with some throwaway account I used once.

And even if I did have say a Facebook (would never use MySpace) account with my actual name on it, I'd not mention it. I'd probably go home and change it, or even cancel it.
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The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon profitable cause...

reply to SUMware
Bad news. It's a shame that Bozeman is such a beautiful place to live, too.
The scenery is nice, but if you've ever been there, it does feel redneck.
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I want to die peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather, not like the other people in his car who were screaming.

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Controversy

The city of Bozeman has come under controversy as reports have come out that applying for a job with the city; part of Bozeman’s background check policy states that to be considered for a job, applicants must provide log-in information and passwords for social network sites in which they participate. It has been pointed out that this violates not only federal law and regulations but also Montana Constitution…

Article 2, Section 10 of the Montana Constitution reads "the right of individual privacy is essential to the well-being of a free society and shall not be infringed without the showing of a compelling state interest."

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reply to SUMware
guess it would be time to make some bogus social networking accounts if I were applying for a job there...

seriously though, I think they're exposing themselves to a world of legal hurt.
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My place : »www.schettino.us

reply to SUMware
One might think "oh its facebook, its not really too big a deal" but with facebook connect, you can use your facebook login on a dozen different sites so imagine if that fell into the wrong hands?

Or what about Yahoo! or Google -- should they be able to read my email? What does that have to do with anything? That is, and should be, a private communication.

And speaking of Google, ... if they logged into my adsense account, they could see information which would get me kicked out of the program for violating the agreement.

Or... here's a better one... Google now hosts medical records. They say they wouldn't look at it but now that they have access to it, can they say they didn't? Can they PROOVE they didn't if someone claims they were discriminated against?
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~ Insert a Funny Sig Here ~

reply to SUMware

Have A Look At The Actual Background Check Form

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Want a job? Give Bozeman your Facebook, Google passwords

"Before we offer people employment in a public trust position, we have a responsibility to do a thorough background check," Chuck Winn, Bozeman's assistant city manager, said in an interview on Thursday. "This is just a component of a thorough background check."

"Shame on us if there was information out there available about a person who applied for a job who was a child molester or had some sort of information out there on the Internet that kind of showed those propensities and we didn't look for it, we didn't ask, and we hired that person," Winn said. "In many ways we would have let the public down."

After local news reports highlighted the requirement on Wednesday, a firestorm of sorts has erupted online: irate e-mail messages have jammed mailboxes in City Hall, snarky Twitter.com comments have poked fun at a place once awarded the sobriquet of "All-America City," and a poll indicates 98 percent of respondents believe the city's policy amounts to an "invasion of privacy."

In addition to the usual requests for a home address and Social Security number, Bozeman's one-page background check form (pdf) asks for the account information for "current personal or business Web sites, Web pages or memberships." It assures applicants that any information received "is confidential."

Winn said applicants are not required to divulge their social networking log-ins, but warned that there could be repercussions if they lie. "If you say 'I have no driving violation,' and then we run your driving record and it turns out you do, and through further questioning we find out you've been deceitful about it, than that would be cause (for firing)," he said. "That tells us a lot about that particular person. They lied to us and were deceitful."

Under the policy, which the city says has been in place for a few years, a police officer logs into and reviews the social-networking sites of people applying for public safety (that is, police and fire) jobs. For other jobs, the city's human resources department will perform the investigation.

An attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group based in San Francisco, questioned Bozeman's decision to ask for user names and passwords.

"I think its indefensibly invasive and likely illegal as a violation of the First Amendment rights of job applicants," said EFF attorney Kevin Bankston. "Essentially, they're conditioning your application for employment on your waiving your First Amendment rights...and risking the security of your information by requiring you to share your password with them.. Where does it stop? How about a photocopy of your diary?"

One potential privacy concern is that accounts for Facebook and Google, among other sites, are used for more than just displaying photos, videos, and messages. They're also used for e-mail, meaning that a Bozeman investigator could review years of personal messages.

"I don't think the government can condition your application for employment on your giving up your First Amendment rights and your Fourth Amendment rights," Bankston said.

Another possible hitch: Some social-networking sites flatly prohibit disclosure of passwords, so a job seeker who complied with Bozeman's request could lose his account. Facebook'sterms of service, for instance, say: "You will not share your password (or) let anyone else access your account."

Bozeman's Winn said the city does not want to be the "taste police" and is focused on looking for evidence of illegal activity. "They can log in themselves," he said. "If not, they can show us what's on their face page. 'Yes, I have a face page but I don't want to show it to you.' That's a fine answer. We'll use other resources out there to do a through background check. We owe it to the public."

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lol facepage.

We should make a MyFace site.... does anyone own myface.com?

 MYFACE.COM LLC
   160 w division rd
   Valparaiso, IN 46385
   US
 
   Domain Name: MYFACE.COM
 

reply to SUMware

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