In the article “Why Asking for a Job Applicant’s Facebook Password Is Fair Game”, Alfred Edmond Jr, states that he does believe employers should be able to ask an applicant for their Facebook password. On the MSNBC show, “Your Business” Edmond stated that if he were to look at it from a business owner’s perspective, an employer has every right to ask for an employees’ password. Whether or not an employee chooses to grant access, an employer should at least be able to ask the question. I agree with the fact that asking for a Facebook password is perfectly acceptable as part of a background check or interview process. Additionally, the applicant should have to answer the question and if they refuse to give their password, their need for security should pose a question to the employer. I do not think that this is an invasion of privacy. Edmond cites an example from “Your Business” stating those working in certain professions, such as caring for children, should be required to provide access to their Facebook accounts. Doing so may help verify critical information about inappropriate activity between the applicant and minors, which is obviously advantageous to find out …show more content…
prior to employment, rather than after. Anything you post on social media is online for anyone to see, forever.
People often forgot this and instead have a false sense of privacy in social media. If you do not want a boss, or anyone else for that matter, to see what occurs in your private life, then you should not post it online. Edmond uses multiple examples in this essay including, “If something is truly private, do not share it on social media out of misplaced faith in the expectation of privacy”. I could not agree more with this quote. I have nothing to hide on my Facebook page but I also do not post inappropriate posts, comments, photos, or any truly personal information. Of course, in ten years I may look at my Facebook and I may question why I ever uploaded certain photos, but I will never be embarrassed or ashamed of what lives
there. Alfred Edmond, Jr also reveals that if he was asked to grant access to his Facebook account on a fictitious game show called, “Your Career”, he would have to want the job a significant amount to give his password to his future employer. If his only option was to give out his password, he would consider getting an attorney or only have the employer be able to look at his page for a certain period of time. I do not agree with Edmond Jr. If you need to get an attorney to negotiate an agreement or limit the time your employer is able to access your Facebook account, then that should be a red flag to your employer. If you refuse to give your Facebook password or you instead opt to work with an attorney, either action may cause an employer to question your behavior and chances are, you become at risk of not getting hired. Is failing to get a job more important than giving away your privacy rights for Facebook? I think employers have every right to ask employees for their Facebook passwords in an effort to make the most informed and confident offers to their future employees. Looking at an individual’s Facebook profile can highlight information about his/her personality and morality, including: work ethic, trust, communication ability, dependability and honesty. If you are passionate, need, or want a particular job, then delete the inappropriate things including posts, friends, and photos prior to applying for your dream job. Better yet, think twice before you ever post something that may be taken as offensive or inappropriate.
Ever since Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook in 2004, millions of people have flocked to the website, resulting in “1.49 billion active users” (Facebook). Facebook allows users to not only reconnect with old friends, but also share whatever the user deems necessary. Facebook has many privacy settings that enable users to prevent anyone from seeing what they post. Even so, skeptics out in the world strongly attest that Facebook, and similar social media websites, aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. In the essay Why Asking for a Job Applicant’s Facebook Password Is Fair Game, Alfred Edmond Jr. addresses the false security Facebook provides to its users, and uses that notion to support his claim that bosses should
Using the informal tone he enhances his argument by providing several thought-provoking statements that allow the reader to see the logic in the article, “Social media is designed for the information shared on it to be searched, and shared- and mined for profit… When considering what to share via social media, don 't think business vs. personal. Think public vs. private. And if something is truly private, do not share it on social media out of a misplaced faith in the expectation of privacy” (134). The reader should agree with Edmond that when posting or being a part of the social media bandwagon, you’re life and decisions will be up for display. Moreover, the business vs. personal and public vs. private point is accurate and logical, because evidently if you post something on any social media outlet you should expect that anyone and everyone can see it, regardless of your privacy settings. Edmond highlights that Facebook along with other social networking sites change their privacy settings whenever they please without
“The standards of what we want to keep private and what we make public are constantly evolving. Over the course of Western history, we’ve developed a desire for more privacy, quite possibly as a status symbol…”(Singer) Technological change leads to new abuses, creating new challenges to security, but society adapts to those challenges. To meet the innate need for privacy, we learn what to reveal and where, and how to keep secret what we don't want to disclose. “Whether Facebook and similar sites are reflecting a change in social norms about privacy or are actually driving that change, that half a billion people are now on Facebook suggests that people believe the benefits of connecting with others, sharing information, networking, self-promoting, flirting, and bragging outweigh breaches of privacy that accompany such behaviours,”(Singer) This is obvious by the continuous and unceasing use of social media platforms, but what needs to be considered is that this information is being provided willingly. “More difficult questions arise when the loss of privacy is not in any sense a choice.”(Singer) When the choice to be anonymous it taken away through social media, the person loses the ability to keep their personal information
Martucci, W. C., & Shankland, R. J. (2012). New laws prohibiting employers from requiring employees to provide access to social-networking sites. Employment Relations Today (Wiley), 39(2), 79-85. doi:10.1002/ert.21368
Defining exactly what he meant by giving your Facebook password to your employer would help his argument by defining how much access that the employer would have to the employee’s social media account. Mostly he seems to be making the case that the employer should be able to see the public posts on the employee’s social media, but giving the employer the password would give the employer unlimited access to not only see everything that the employee posts, but also unlimited access to private messages, and access to alter their social media
The right to privacy is something that all Americans have and it is used as defense when people’s privacy is intruded upon. Some corporations have found tricky ways to breach people’s rights to privacy like through social networks, e-mail, sign-up forms for gyms or bank accounts, and more. The right to privacy is a serious matter, it involves all personal information about a person and they have the right to share their information or keep it to themselves. If someone’s right to privacy is breached, they can bring that breach to court as a lawsuit. Henrietta Lacks’s right to privacy was breached when her cells were taken, Facebook breached user privacy rights by
When using Facebook, users are able to perform many different tasks while connecting with various individuals. Some of the functions and applications that are available for users include: the ability to create a profile, become friends with individuals, send private messages, post comments on friend’s walls, and share pictures on your profile page. Along with these functions, there must be a level of protection that guards the Facebook account holders. However, according to Facebook’s privacy principles, the network states that “People should have the freedom to share whatever information they want, in any medium or any format, and have ...
As older siblings, friends, and cousins were denied position at school and in the work force, we realized that adults and employers had found Facebook. Our uncensored character was on display for future bosses, colleges, etc. and they were there to stay. Instead of references being the test of character for a job, it was the online identity that determined whether or not the application got even a second glance. In light of this revelation, we changed. Our Facebooks no longer reflected our true selves, but rather the person that we thought colleges and employers should see. Much like hiding our dirty laundry from prying eyes in the halls of high school, we could no longer wear our proverbial hearts on our internet sleeves, for the future was at stake. Much like what had once been the Old West, the internet was now connected with railroads—each leading back to the offline person. Tame and orderly.
Facebook privacy and security have many benefits, problems, and challenges. There is a benefit for every security setting on Facebook but the real concern comes along when it comes to facing the problem and how this problem goes into different steps of challenges, and how we can fix that problem in order for privacy not to be a huge issue. A person that has access to Facebook wants to share their everyday moments to the world such as sharing personal posts, photos and videos, and that’s what Facebook is basically known for.
A person’s right to privacy is being challenged with the high use of social media such as Facebook and Twitter. What used to be considered part of your personal life is not so personal anymore. When one chooses to share details about ones-self to their friends via a social media, they are not always thinking about the “other” people. The other people could be ones current boss or future employer. Other people could be a school official, your baseball coach, your friends’ mother; you name it the list goes on and on. Recently, a few employers or perspective employers have requested Facebook and other social network log-in information. It is probably a violation of equal employment laws, and there are two senators investigating the practice of requiring job applicants and employees to provide their social network log-in information as a condition of employment.
With more than 500 million active users, the site is a warehouse of personal information. Personal profiles allow users to provide information about their name, age, hometown, relationship status, activities, job, school, and more. They can connect with the others’ profiles and become ”friends”. Combined with a profile picture, you can pretty much learn anything you want to know about somebody over Facebook (should they choose to provide the information). However, what many users fail to realize is that in most cases this information is not only available to their “friends”. Though users can change their privacy settings to limit with whom their profile information is shared, the site gathers and stores more than most of us want to acknowledge. For instance, the Facebook “Like” butto...
This is yet another way of invading privacy. In the past, employers would only know what you told them in your interview. They would assess your skills and determine if you were right for the job, aside from knowing your beliefs or views. However, now with Facebook an employer can see all the personal information, this can negatively influence a candidate’s job. The same goes for those who are currently employed and potential students. “Dr. Nora Barnes, Director for the Center of Marketing Research at University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, published a study that showed more than 20% of colleges and universities search social networks for their admissions candidates” (Fodeman). This is becoming a part of the admissions process, but it is unfair. Searching someone’s Facebook to determine his or her admissions eligibility is wrong and a privacy invasion. As long as a student has fulfilled the school’s requirements and done well in school, why should it matter what their personal lives are like? In the time before Facebook, this would be like a school sending someone to secretly follow a potential student and see what he or she does in their
As college students and adults prepare for the real world, people are constantly faced with how to prepare for interviews and the hiring process with jobs. One factor of that is the gray area that is the idea of social media and networking helping to assist with the hiring process. Technology has become a privacy and employment issue that future employees face. When it comes to employment companies a have no boundaries and employers need to realize that social media should be used only for non-bias practices and not employment decisions based on someone’s Facebook post. Topic: How Privacy and Employment Laws effect Social Media changing the Hiring Process.
Upon the advent of social networking websites, an entirely new level of self-expression was formed. People instantly share updates on their lives with family, friends, and colleagues, reconnecting with those they had lost contact with. Social networking has now become an integral part of contemporary society – a modern analog for catching up with friends over slow, conventional methods or finding upcoming events in newspapers. However, along with this freedom of information, the danger of revealing too much personal information has become apparent. As such, online social media poses an imminent danger to society as it blurs the line between private and public information, creating an obsession with sharing one’s personal life online.
Students who want to find jobs may regret posting private pictures and comments on Facebook. Employers not only screen resumes and conduct interviews, but also view job candidates’ Facebook profiles. The boss wants to know if the applicant is actually a “professional.” Pictures may show the person drinking, smoking, or doing other unprofessional activities. Offensive comments can also hurt an applicant’s chances of getting the job.