Employers Should Avoid Requesting Facebook Passwords

In the information age, it may be tempting for employers to seek out personal information about prospective employees before making a hiring decision and, given the number of social media outlets, including Facebook, it is certainly easy for employers to do so. Indeed, Facebook is a potential wealth of information that otherwise might not be available to an employer through the traditional hiring process.

Because of the recent uproar by legislators around the country, employers who request Facebook and other social media passwords from prospective employees may want to rethink this practice. State legislatures are moving to ban the practice, and some states have already succeeded in passing bills prohibiting such requests, including Maryland and Illinois. Similar proposals have been introduced in New York, California, Washington, and Ohio. Further, federal legislators introduced a similar bill in the U.S. House of Representatives in late April and companion proposals