I saw this article, Govt. agencies, colleges demand applicants’ Facebook passwords by Bob Sullivan, on my NBC Bay Area app for iPhone. The article originated in MSNBC’s The Redtape Chronicles – a series about corporations, government, and technology. I really don’t like to read things off of MSNBC (just because I feel like there are more thoughtful sources online – I only use the NBC Bay Area app for local quirky news), but the issue at hand spoke to me. Plus, Sullivan is a technology writer (specializing in identity theft online) and since this blog is about technology and the Internet, I think it fits. I believe the issue at hand correlates with balancing ethics and privacy on the Internet.

The article describes potential employers and academic looking through applicants’ social network profiles. Employers have been asking applicants to provide their log-in information so they can snoop through things the applicant would normally deem private. Thankfully, that was ruled a blatant invasion of privacy so now employers can only look over an applicant’s shoulder during the interview. Employers’ requests are not required, but it challenges one’s ethics and integrity. As an applicant, you don’t have to show what you’re doing on the Internet, but you might want to still show that you’re a willing person. What if there’s something you don’t want to disclose or something you think is perfectly innocent is deemed inappropriate by the interviewer? What if the interviewer wanted to cross the line and dig into your personal information? The pressure of wanting to get a job, especially one that you want, can lead a person to FEEL coerced into showing what they do online. I think ethically you’re selling yourself short as an applicant. As an interviewer, I think there could potentially be conflicts of interest and bouts of wrong judgement.

I feel that since technology and Web 2.0 has been changing so fast in the past decade it is difficult for people to maintain a certain set of guidelines in how one would want to be portrayed and how one would want to behave. In a previous post about social identity, I’ve said that if you don’t have a presence on the Internet then you don’t exist. That’s a scary fact. Ten years ago, MySpace, Facebook, and LinkedIn didn’t even exist. MySpace and LinkedIn launched in 2003; Facebook launched in 2004. Yet their full potential of social networking hadn’t really been reached until a couple years ago. At first these outlets were for people to meet others and have online ties to friends you have in real life. LinkedIn was a way for organizations to post their ads for employment. Nowadays, Facebook is for spreading news among friends and LinkedIn is where you put your resume for employment. You have to sell yourself, but at what cost?

I think it would be extremely scary if it is deemed legal for the government and your employer to have access to your social life. I understand that they already have the information to steal your identity (social security number, address, birth date, legal names, etc), but to control your personal life is definitely pushing it. So I think the technologies and means of communication that we are experiencing are great, but they ought to still require the same amount of ethics, integrity, and respect we had for others in the past. We’re not just online personas, we’re people who think, feel, and do.