Imagine applying for a job and finding the following information request: “Please list any and all, current personal or business Web sites, Web pages or memberships on any Internet-based chat rooms, social clubs or forums, to include, but not limited to: Facebook, Google, Yahoo, YouTube.com, MySpace, etc.” Placed below this request, which is actually a demand (skip this section and you will not get the job) are three lines for the username and password of your accounts. The city of Bozeman, Montana has been doing that for years.
I have no problem providing an employer with a list of my web sites, Twitter and FaceBook pages and the like. That request would be fine as it is not a First Amendment violation. In fact, I would probably relish it along with my mustard and hot dogs on the 4th of July picnic. You might ask: “Fred, why would you even remotely consider this request?” and my answer is: Google.
If you have a problem listing all your social networking sites, you have a real problem. All your prospective employer needs to do is Google your name, i.e. “Fred Hoot”. They will see a list of all of your web sites, LinkedIn and Naymz, Twitter, Classmates, Reunion, Twitter, Digg, political contributions, the comment you made in a blog post “We finally found the missing link of DemocRAT Ted Kennedy’s lineage!”, and even all postings you ever made since the Internet was first capable of being accessed with a VT100 text-only terminal and a multitude of other tidbits of your life.
You will also get a lot of information that is not simply true for you personally, like “my” deviantART and “my” Off-Broadway Database entries. (I did promise the parents of some of my closest friends free tickets to my first Carnegie Hall performance, but that was even before DARPANet.)
Quite frankly, I would not want to work for anyone who did not know how to use Google and would need me to list my sites for them. My last employer’s employees were 90% pure liberal and they all found out about my political leanings before I was hired. Actually that may have helped, as I became the “Token Conservative” and gave them an outlet for their frustrations. (The identities of the other Conservatives are withheld, as some of them are still employed there.)
I am a firm believer that one should not hide behind the First Amendment. Shout you opinions from the rooftops! Remember, Google (and other search engines) will proudly post even your smallest whisper anyway.
I do object to and would not provide them with my login information. I would not want an employer having the capability to delete or change any of my blogs or sites. That would be a violation of my First Amendment Rights!
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