Social Networking Bill of Rights

SOCIAL INTRODUCTION NETWORKING As our lives become increasingly digital, many of us share more and more on social media sites. Consequently, employers and colleges have started to request access to our personal profiles as a way to learn more about us. BILL OF RIGHTS Should the same standards of privacy we've come to expect offline apply online, too? Take a look. THE SITUATION Many HR managers review publicly available social media profiles. One survey said 75% of recruiters reported policies that required online research of applications. However, some folks have made their social media profiles private, which prevents managers from viewing their accounts. Consequently, some employers access to applicants' private profiles so they can view Nearly all applicants agree to this voluntary review, because they need or want the job. asking for them. Some employers had been asking applicants to surrender their usernames and passwords during interviews, but a complaint from the ACLU in 2011 stopped that practice. Now many ask applicants to sign into their social accounts so the interviewer can look around. WHO'S ASKING FOR ACCESS? Colleges Police Correctional facilities 911 Public agencies departments dispatchers Facilities that have asked for login information claim they do so to make sure applicants don't have ties to gangs. Public agencies more often request usernames and passwords from applicants than others Some colleges are requiring student- Some applicants are asked to friend Some departments ask applicants to sign into their social media profiles to be athletes to "friend" a coach or administrator who can monitor their account. background investigators on social sites as a part of the screening process. screened. WHAT'S THE PROBLEM? Requesting access to someone's personal social profile is going too far. Some people say it's the equivalent of: ACLU According to the ACLU: privacy for private employers to insist on looking at people's private Facebook pages as a condition of employment or consideration in an application process. People are entitled to their private "It's an invasion Asking for someone's house keys Requesting to read your personal email Bugging students' off-campus apartments lives." - ACLU attorney Catherine Crump NETWORKS' TERMS OF SERVICE Some social networks are quite clear on the issue of sharing login information, Others are a bit more vague: "You will not share your password, .. let anyone else access your account, or do anything else that might jeopardize the security of your account." "You are responsible for safeguarding the password that you use to access the Services and for any "You agree to: (1) Keep your password secure and confidential; (2) not permit others to use your activities or actions under account. your password." in Lately, this issue has centered around Facebook. Facebook responded by saying that giving out personal login information violates their terms of service. However, some experts claim that those terms have no real weight, and asking for that information is a legal gray area. "As a user, you shouldn't be forced to share your private information and communications just to get a job. And as the friend of a user, you shouldn't have to worry that your private information or communications will be revealed to someone you don't know and didn't intend to share with just because that user is looking for a job." - Erin Egan, Facebook's Chief Privacy Officer, Policy Facebook says they will threaten legal action against those who violate their policy. Many employers and colleges don't realize that by requesting access to your social media profiles, they may then become liable for the content you post. Some situations may include: LEGAL CONSEQUENCES If an applicant, student or employee has an admission of guilt on their profile, the employer or college may assume liability for the protection of the information that they've seen. If an employer finds out that an applicant is a certain age (or another protected group), the 2 employer may open itself up to discrimination claims if they don't hire that person. IDENTIFICATION What's being done? Several members of the US Senate and Congress have announced that they're working on a bill that would prohibit these requests. If a college monitors a student's profile, but misses signals that something is going to happen (for example a campus shooting), the college may become liable. BILL OF RIGHTS This Bill of Rights petition was drafted and adopted by concerned social media users after the 2010 Computers, Freedom and Privacy Conference. SOCIAL NETWORK USERS' BILL OF RIGHTS We the users expect social network sites to provide us the following rights in their Terms of Service, Privacy Policies, and implementations of their system: 1. Honesty: Honor your privacy policy and terms of service. 2. Clarity: Make sure that policies, terms of service, and settings are easy to find and understand. 3. Freedom of speech: Do not delete or modify my data without a clear policy and justification. 4. Empowerment: Support assistive technologies and universal accessibility 5. Self-protection: Support privacy-enhancing technologies. To read more, visit: http://www.facebook.com/CFPBillOfRights/info aclu.org/blog/technology-and-liberty/| privacyrights.org SOURCES: boston.com redtape.msnbc.msn.com | thenextweb.com | finance.yahoo.com | facebook.com | twitter.com |linkedin.com | dailykos.com|BACKGROUND CHECK blogs.citypages.com | theverge.com | msnbc.com Information provided by: http://www.backgroundcheck.org