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Montana City Asks Potential Employees to Hand Over Personal Passwords
Officials in the city of Bozeman, Montana have apparently lost their minds. An anonymous tipster alerted local media that upon applying for a job with the city he or she was asked to hand over log-in credentials for any social networking sites with which they had an account.According to the local CBS affiliate, in addition to a clause permitting a standard background check of education, employment, and criminal history, the application includes a section that reads:
Please list any and all, current personal or business websites, web pages or memberships on any Internet-based chat rooms, social clubs or forums, to include, but not limited to: Facebook, Google, Yahoo, YouTube.com, MySpace, etc.,The form (warning: PDF) then has lines for filling in the Web site address, user name, and password.
This has, of course, rankled privacy advocates, who believe this request crosses the line between a request for useful information and a full-fledged invasion of privacy. And visitors to the Montana News Station Web site seem to agree, with 98-percent voicing opposition to the policy in an online poll.
City attorney Greg Sullivan defended the requirement to local news, saying:
...we have positions ranging from fire and police, which require people of high integrity for those positions... we do those types of investigations to make sure the people that we hire have the highest moral character and are a good fit for the city.You should always be careful about what you post on sites like Facebook or MySpace, lest it cost you your job. But the government (or any employer for that matter) demanding access to your private communications is clearly going too far. Not to mention a violation of Facebook's Terms of Service (check item 6 under "Registration and Account Security" and item 3 under "Safety"). [From: MontanaNewsStation.com, via DailyTech]
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Comments
7
Subscribe to commentsHello CMD!Jun 21st 2009 9:54AM
This is old fashioned phishing at it's finest. I mean come on, a fake looking myspace where you type in the password, pish posh. Who needs that when you can ask for it on a background check. This is the real deal.
jmassey699Jun 21st 2009 10:22AM
singj96,
I pray that you are right but for some reason, I think it is just another thing our state and local governments are doing to take away our freedoms.
And as time goes on, our freedoms will continue to evaporate away.
It's sad. It really is when the normal background checks aren't enough.
Unfortunately, I think the days of people leading private lives are coming to an end. :(
Richard KlugeJun 21st 2009 12:04PM
The good city of Bozeman must not trust anyone they have hired over the years before these social websites became available. I assume every city employee must now give the passwords to the city. I would file a freedom of information suit to see if the city attorney and mayor have supplied their passords, then check out their respective postings.
jdubJun 22nd 2009 11:50AM
all the politicians should have to go through all these checks including drug screens, back ground, passwords,medical,police,gpa, ect. and the results put on national t.v. before even being allowed to run for public office
AuroraJun 22nd 2009 3:39AM
Oh yeah!!! I think it should be mandatory !! The public gets to read the e-mails and sites visited by MT Officials!! It's a two way street folks!! I cannot wait to see what the Judges, Prosecutors, Police and Chiefs of police are saying up there!!! Not just Bozeman but especially Havre!! This could be a real hoot!! Hey , you guys work for us!! We want to see what all the officials are doing on the net!!! Right up to the Gov's office!! Hahaha!! Oh , this will be a lot of fun, of that I am sure!!! What's good for the employees you all are hiring ,is good for us to see what you are doing too!! Going to be some mighty interesting things !!! Bring it on!!!
tamuruoflekoroJun 21st 2009 5:48PM
okay, i get handing over the usenames, i'd even give my employer an invitation to friend/follow me. but PASSWORDS! serously? i hope to heck riots get started
cdavidhillJun 21st 2009 8:27PM
This requirement has already been rescinded. The article in Forbes via AP:
City drops request for Internet passwords
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2009/06/19/ap6567095.html