Nova Scotia Considers Legislative Action To Prevent Employers From Requesting Social Networking Passwords

On April 23, 2012, Nova Scotia Liberal MLA Andrew Younger introduced Bill 40, which would amend the Labour Standards Code (Nova Scotia) to prohibit an employer from requiring an employee or prospective employee to provide access to the employee or job candidate's social networking account or discriminating against the employee or job candidate for refusing to provide such access. The Nova Scotia NDP government is reported to be considering the Bill.

If the Bill were to pass, it would be the first legislation to pass in Canada specifically addressing the practice of employers requiring employees or job candidates to provide access to social networking accounts. Last week, Maryland became the first state in the United States to pass legislation prohibiting an employer from requesting or requiring that an employee or job candidate disclose passwords (among other things) for accessing personal accounts or social networking services and disciplining any employee