More Reasons Not To Spy On Potential Hires

Recent accounts of prospective employees forced to divulge their social media passwords in job interviews have lawmakers and privacy advocates buzzing. State legislators in California and elsewhere are introducing legislation to ban the practice, and federal legislation is being discussed as well.

But how widespread is this policy—and should small business owners rely on it in their own hiring?

Scott J. Witlin, a labor and employment partner in law firm Barnes & Thornburg’s Los Angeles office, doubts many employers are asking candidates for passwords to Facebook or other social media sites. While a handful of government and institutional employers have been documented doing so, he says, private industry is not joining up.

“I think this is a crisis du jour and completely overblown,” Witlin says. He queried his firm’s 70 labor attorneys in five states and found none whose clients were strong-arming job candidates into revealing their social media authentication. “It’s just common sense. Most employers wouldn’t ask applicants if they could go through their e-mails, and this is pretty much the same thing,” he says.

Yet with the insight into an applicant’s character that a Facebook or Google+ account might provide, he admits the idea may be tempting, particularly to small employers who don’t have human resource departments or budgets for independent background checks.

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