Govt. & College Applicants: Turn Over Your Facebook Password

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Government agencies and Colleges are forcing applicants to turn over Facebook passwords, not only invading the applicant’s privacy but their friends’ as well.

Bob Sullivan for MSNBC:

Employers and colleges find the treasure-trove of personal information hiding behind password-protected accounts and privacy walls just too tempting, and some are demanding full access from job applicants and student athletes.

One can only imagine the types of things colleges and government agencies will looking for and how they will quantify this information. Will they be looking at pictures for signs of excessive partying and illegal activities? Will they start going through friend’s pages to see the type of people you associate with?

The reason why this invasion of privacy is so over the top is the same reason why the Path address book dramaย was so unsettling. It’s the forced sharing of information that isn’t yours to give: like the phone numbers of all your friends. By demanding your Facebook password, they’re in essence forcing you to turn over not just your personal information, but your friends’ private information as well.

That is not acceptable.

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