Casey Doig

Digital Applications

Professor Fleury-Lawson

Extra Credit Blog

This article was written by Doug Gross and published on March 22^nd, 2012. The Boston globe covered an intriguing story but has only recently became a large topic of discussion.  This article is based around the rights that employees have within their workplace.  An event occurred where an employee was asked for his username and password to his Facebook account.  Asking for the credentials to a personal webpage at an interview is extremely unacceptable.  This shows complete dishonest trust from the start and does not establish a good relationship between the company and employee.  One event stated, "I submit that handing over your Facebook (or Twitter or whatever) login ID and password is analogous to handing over the key to your house," (http://www.livebinders.com/play/play/304850) Many people agree with this point of view.  The fact that an employee has a Facebook does not give them any right to invade into your personal life.  If the company wanted an employee they would want them for the characteristics they show upon arrival at the workplace.  The fact that an interviewer would ask for a password to such a personal thing is beyond me.  I do not understand it.  I do understand when they look at Facebook accounts.  See a little bit of their employee’s background.  This could be useful, but to ask for complete access to a person’s Facebook account is extremely immature.  If you can’t control your business and hire the right people without stalking their lives you do not deserve to own a business or be looking over employees.  There are too many variables to things that could even go wrong.  This has not been a large problem but there have been reported accidents.  The main argument here is that a good employee does not completely mean an employee willing to give someone complete access to there absolute personal life.  This is wrong and should never be allowed.