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Portage Lakes, Ohio —
Are we traveling back in time? Is the year 1984? Much has been reported recently about companies asking potential employees for their social network passwords. On one hand there's the argument if you've nothing to hide, why worry. Submit your password. Chances are you'll get the job. Refuse, and you're likely to keep looking.
On the other hand the opposing argument is equally valid, if not more so. This position is passwords are for personal use only. Otherwise, why need a password if your data's open to the public? But employers claim they need to see information on social networks such as Facebook for a full investigation of potential employees as well as (and most of the time this is stretching it) for security reasons.
Now granted, no one wants to live through another 9/11, another Timothy McVeigh, the instigator and terrorist of the Oklahoma City bombing, or another twisted Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber. To be concerned with day to day…no, make that hour to hour…security in this day and age is understandable. We should all be aware of our surroundings, and at all times. And we should expect better than adequate security by those who are experts in the field, not amateurs.
Which raises this issue. Suppose you decide to make your Facebook writings available for public scrutiny. If you do, that's your right. No one else's but yours. Not your neighbor's, not your pastor's, not your spouse's, not even your sibling's or best friend's. Only yours. At least that's the way it was intended. But no more. With potential employers requesting passwords, this allows entry into personal postings and perhaps may reveal data which you never intended to be viewed by certain others.
Why don't they just ask for our house key so they can gain access to our private bedrooms whenever we least expect it?
I don't know about you, but if I wanted to write something controversial, or anything that could be construed as making me a potential security risk, I certainly wouldn't put it on a social network for all the world to see. I'd write it in code, recode the code, recode that code and then hide it in a safe or a safety deposit box. And then, to make sure no one suspected I wrote anything of such nature, I'd write a special code that told me where I hid the code. And job or no job, I'd never dream of giving it to an employer.
Are we traveling back in time? Is the year 1984? Much has been reported recently about companies asking potential employees for their social network passwords. On one hand there's the argument if you've nothing to hide, why worry. Submit your password. Chances are you'll get the job. Refuse, and you're likely to keep looking.
On the other hand the opposing argument is equally valid, if not more so. This position is passwords are for personal use only. Otherwise, why need a password if your data's open to the public? But employers claim they need to see information on social networks such as Facebook for a full investigation of potential employees as well as (and most of the time this is stretching it) for security reasons.
Now granted, no one wants to live through another 9/11, another Timothy McVeigh, the instigator and terrorist of the Oklahoma City bombing, or another twisted Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber. To be concerned with day to day…no, make that hour to hour…security in this day and age is understandable. We should all be aware of our surroundings, and at all times. And we should expect better than adequate security by those who are experts in the field, not amateurs.
Which raises this issue. Suppose you decide to make your Facebook writings available for public scrutiny. If you do, that's your right. No one else's but yours. Not your neighbor's, not your pastor's, not your spouse's, not even your sibling's or best friend's. Only yours. At least that's the way it was intended. But no more. With potential employers requesting passwords, this allows entry into personal postings and perhaps may reveal data which you never intended to be viewed by certain others.
Why don't they just ask for our house key so they can gain access to our private bedrooms whenever we least expect it?
I don't know about you, but if I wanted to write something controversial, or anything that could be construed as making me a potential security risk, I certainly wouldn't put it on a social network for all the world to see. I'd write it in code, recode the code, recode that code and then hide it in a safe or a safety deposit box. And then, to make sure no one suspected I wrote anything of such nature, I'd write a special code that told me where I hid the code. And job or no job, I'd never dream of giving it to an employer.
That is of course, unless there was an unwritten agreement of confidentiality between the employer and myself…something like what exists between a priest and confessor, a doctor and patient or an attorney and client.
What makes anyone think we'd allow open access to our Facebook? Frankly, I was shocked when I discovered how employers have been requesting them. Isn't there anything sacred in this world anymore? Why don't they just ask to see our diaries or personal notes we may have hidden in our wallets? Or perhaps we could just give them the keys to our front door and tell them to help themselves. Nothing violates a person's privacy and freedom more than this.
From what I saw on the news the other night even colleges are now demanding passwords for more private information than what they normally do about potential students before accepting them. Imagine that. The very institutions of higher learning that teach students all about the personal freedoms our constitution guarantees, appear to be violating one of those guaranteed freedoms.
How did this nation come to this? These people try justifying requests by telling us it's so crucial to the security of this nation. Are we all trying to gain employment with Homeland Security, the ATF, CIA, FBI or other agencies that dwell within the confines of our government? Good grief, you wonder how we made it this far without going through background checks the past 236 years for college enrollment and employment.
Before we can answer these questions we need to ask if we really need "1984's" Big Brother snooping so closely into our private lives. Why must we as adults release passwords and allow public access to information that was intended only for certain private eyes? Information we'd never dream of sharing with a widely distributed newspaper, magazine or a telecast?
What is so suspicious about us as individuals that sets off the red lights for authorities? Is the entire country going loco or are we really witnessing little by little the erosion of our basic liberties and rights as some believe we are?
Sooner or later the answer to these questions must be answered. Let's hope it's sooner rather than later, so we can return to solving real problems, such as hunger, homelessness, unemployment and outrageously expensive medical care that have been plaguing humanity since time immemorial.
Comments may be emailed to: Frankweaverjr@aol.com
