Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
If it was made clear that providing such information was a condition of employment at that company, I really don't see why the law should get involved. Nobody's forcing anyone to apply for jobs where that is a requirement. In my job, for example, having a government security clearance is a requirement, and that involves checks that go a heck of a lot deeper than checking Facebook accounts. I knew that when I went to work for the company.
If an employer started requesting such information from EXISTING employees, then I agree that it would be unreasonable.
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I thought you were an independent software developer? Anyway some of the lawmakers don't happen to agree with you. For reference
here's a story on the problem, Maryland has already banned the practice, a bill to ban it in California has passed committee, New Jersey is somewhere along the process and a
bill to ban it on a federal level is to be introduced in the Senate.
It's real easy to take the attitude "no one is forced to apply for jobs where that is a requirement" when you're not the one being forced. Just remember, there are a lot of people with government security clearances who are now out there having to look for a new job. Just because they're faced with a choice between accepting what has been called by the ACLU, among others, "an egregious privacy violation" and feeding their families doesn't make it right and doesn't make it acceptable.
Also if you have any kind of serious government clearance then you can be sure that they will be back to rerun the clearance on existing employees. Hell, we even had renew our criminal record checks when I was a leader in a Scout troop - though no one asked me for my email login. Maybe you should get yours ready though.