Used to be, the only people besides you who were trying to log in to your Facebook account, were jerk friends looking to post something embarrassing under your name. But increasingly, it’s your employers who, no longer satisfied cruising your public social network profiles, are actually asking for your login information to see all the private stuff!
This kind of big brother stuff, sends my imagination off into the stratosphere. I picture the guy who asks my for my Facebook password wearing black gloves, a monocle, and sporting a wicked scar. When I picture myself refusing, I imagine being dragged kicking and screaming by two huge Men in Black. Then I’m incarcerated as a political dissident, and I become the Rosa Parks of the anti-anti-online privacy movement. It’s kind of cool, actually.
Anyway, last year, former correctional officer Robert Collins was asked to give his superior his Facebook login information in order to be considered for a promotion. He gave the information but then contacted the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland about the violation of privacy.
This is the kind of thing that feels so good to get righteously indignant about. And, happily, several Maryland lawmakers are doing just that. Sen. Ronald N. Young decried the practice for “stepping on constitutional rights.” Sen. Young is one of several legislators that have sponsored bills currently sitting in the Maryland legislature aimed at curtailing the ability of employers to request login information. Some would only protect state employees. Others are more inclusive, protecting students also. I say pass ’em all; let God sort ’em out!
