A few days ago I read an article on Mashable, “What to do When a Potential Employer Asks For Your Facebook Password” by Tony Morrison – this article was in response to the article “Job Seekers Beware: Employers May Ask to See Your Facebook Account” by Alissa Skelton. Here Alissa points out how employers are requesting potential employees to give them their facebook usernames and passwords at job interviews.
Do you think this is right?
I think this is very wrong and a complete misuse of power. What will the employer gain by looking at the persons profile – will they find out more about their personal life, what they do in their free time, what sort of pictures they have on their profiles, etc. How will their company gain from this information?
What a person hides on their facebook profiles is nobody’s business. The only thing strangers and employers who don’t know you should be able to see, is what’s visible to the public.
I can understand if an employer wants to go through your Linkedin profile which is a more professional network. Here they can look at your education, your employment history, your CV, your recommendations, etc. The information they find here can be useful for their company as it can help them determine whether you have got the necessary skills for the job. But what can they gain from your facebook profile that will help their company in some way.
So should you give away your facebook password?
I think you shouldn’t. If I were at an interview, I wouldn’t. I would ask them to look at my facebook profile as a friend or whatever’s visible to the public or I will refer them to my Linkedin profile, but I would never give away my facebook password because it all matters where you draw the line.
For now they might ask you for your facebook profile password, but in the future who knows what else they will ask you to provide – maybe your bank or credit card statement (to check what you spend your money on) or your phone number to see who you call.
So draw the line early on and let your employers know it’s your personal life and you wouldn’t like anybody else to see it.
Have you ever been asked for your facebook password by your employer? Did you give it? How do you think people should respond to this? Please leave your comments in the comments box below.