Invasion of Privacy, Essay Example

Today, in our society many people have joined Social Networking platforms to keep informed and up to date with the new way of life. The Internet has become a major factor in our daily lives to search for jobs, shop online or to find the last news around the world. The employees have join the networks accessing profiles, which is an invasion of privacy. The employers are using the Internet to access potential employee’s profiles. The potential employees are being asked to provide the personal sign-on and password to their social network sites. The invasion of privacy is becoming more prevalent in our society. The employers should not be asking for or demanding passwords to private social networking sites. There is an article Protalinski(2012) that indicated the Maryland Division of Corrections requested a potential employee’spassword during an interview. The Maryland Division of Corrections department was illegally requesting private information that does not have to be shared with an employee.

Conversely, the corrections employee might lose his job because it was a part of the recertification process. The reason for the tight security at the corrections center because inmates use the Internet to communicate. The Maryland Corrections department was making sure the employees are not communicating with the prisoners. However, it is still illegal for employers to request this information. This is the same as profiling a person because they drive an expensive car or review a person’s background because they are of the Muslim faith. Organizations are asking for legal ramifications when they ask discriminatory questions during the interview or access to private Facebook information as a condition of hire(Volz 1).

There is support on the legislative floor that prevents employers from accessing an individual’s social networking usernames and passwords. It is a violation of a person’s First Amendment Rights when employees as for social networking sign-on and passwords. This is very personal just like your bank account information or life insurance policy account number. This brings up the other questions on what resources are business using to find out personal tendencies outside of work. In addition, to what questions are employees asking to find out information about an employee that is illegal. More importantly, there is pending state-by-statesupport against the requesting Facebook passwords and access. In California pending, the law prohibits any employee to request an employee to provide personal password and sign-on to any social networking website(National Conference of State 3).On the legislation floor, there are 28 states are pending the similar language as California to prevent requesting Facebook or any other social networking website information.

The employer is asking about personal information that is outside the scope of hiring a personal based on their qualifications. Conversely, with the advent of the Internet many laws do not pertain to the information highway. It is time for the government to pass these laws to protect everyone’s private information. In addition, there should be stiff penalties in place for organizations that have similar practices that invade a person’s privacy. Today, a potential employee has to be aware when their privacy rights have been compromised. All three articles bring to light how citizens’ private rights are violated during an interview. We have to be responsible because they are free resources such as LinkedIn that have your professional information, which could work against the potential employee. In our society today, one must be very careful what information they give the world access.

Works Cited

National Conference of State (2014). Employee access to social media usernames and passwords.

Retrieved from http://www.ncsl.org/research/telecommunications-and-information-technology/employer-access-to-social-media-passwords-2013.aspx

Protalinski, E. (2012 Mar).ACLU: Employers Demanding Facebook Passwords Is Privacy Invasion. Retrieved November 1, 2014 from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/facebook/aclu-employers-demanding-facebook-passwords-is-privacy-invasion/10693

Volz, D. (2004).Facebook helps employers discriminate:Can we avoid it? Retrieved October 31, 2014 from http://www.nationaljournal.com/innovation-works/facebook-helps-employers-discriminate-can-we-avoid-it-20131126