Why Asking For A Job Applicant's Facebook Password Is Fair Game Summary

Social networks have been making a splash in the internet world over the past couple of years. In some studies into the monitoring of social media activity by employees has

Private information that was previously segregated now becomes easily accessible to employers, colleagues, recruiters, and clients, among other perhaps unintended audiences” (Abril, 2012, para. 4). Yes, most social media sites attain privacy settings but one must always remember there are hiccups in everything on the internet and no guarantees leaks will not occur.

Facebook is the largest gateway to social media communication, allowing you to stay in touch with friends, family, and public. Therefore, if Jackson had concerns about a customer, the human resources department would have been a better option. They specialize in employee relation issues, while keeping all information confidential. In our business, we take pride in our image, while building trustworthy relations with all customers. Jackson’s behavior on social media could potentially harm the relationship with this customer, present and future customers. When one shares information on

Northeast BMW prides themselves on the principle of “treating [their] employees and customers the way they want to be treated” (Lopiano & Watson 2). However, this principle is not reciprocated when Brett Buckley, a Northeast BMW salesperson for roughly 12 years, decides to misuse social media. One of the few reasonable explanation why Buckley would post two sarcastic and mocking posts against the Northeast BMW and Northeast Land Rover dealership is because he honestly thought, the information posted on his personal Facebook was private. According to the text, “it was his Facebook page and that what he posted to it was none of Thompson's or any other manager’s business” (Lopiano & Watson 1). In other words, he thought his personal Facebook had

However, this new Facebook’s feature can be backfired because Facebook invades users’ privacy. Many users felt like their privacy was completely infiltrated, just about everything users updated or changed was instantly blasted out to hundreds of friends. News Feed has kept all the users’ information “loud”, and allowed people to see pictures and posts, which could give out information that users might not want their friends to know. Users claim that News Feed features leave the door open for people to 'creep'. “Facebook has always tried to push the envelope” (p.545) and “Everyone is freaking out” (p.544). Using people’s first reaction to the Facebook’s “News Feed” feature, Thompson later explains the privacy problem that this new feature may have caused. Thompson tries to inform the readers both side of the benefits and disadvantages using Facebook. The author creates a great connection with the readers by doing so, makes the readers feel that he’s on the same with them, that he understands the whole circumstances.

With the idea of humans as autonomous beings with dignity, philosopher Immanuel Kant would agree that all moral agents should value privacy and individuality for themselves and others. When social media companies take sensitive and personal information to gain profit, it would be treating people as merely a means to an end. Without authority of consent, it would infringe on a person’s privacy and would not treat the person with the respect one deserves as a rational human being. To treat social network users with respect means they should be treated as people as ends in themselves and not as bits and pieces of information to be used. Furthermore, the categorical imperative would say that it is immoral to intrude into another person’s private life on social media without permission or in secret. Because Kant insists that the morality of a maxim depends on whether we can allow it to be a universal law,

Employers on our social media, this is a fact that everyone in this age accepts but do not necessarily like or want. Some people say it is okay to check social media when looking for who to hire, but this infringes on privacy rights. If an employer finds something discriminating on a profile and decides not to hire the person this is not okay, even though some may say it is because you want to know what you are getting into. An employer could find information that was not even true on social media, this would not work in favor of employment. It is not okay to check social media when employers are hiring because it invades privacy, discriminates and the information provided on the site could be false.

A. Laura Moscone, a Human Resource Director for a small firm, has to decide which applicant out of a set of finalists she should hire for an outside sales position; however, her firm’s policy includes Facebook postings of their private life in her decision making for hiring any applicant for the outside sales position.

Do you give it up or is this a ridiculous question? Alfred Edmond Jr. writes in his written piece, Why Asking for a Job Applicant’s Facebook Password Is Fair Game, how he believes that asking for a social media password is not pushing it too far. Although he admits this is coming from the business owner point of view. In the position of a future employee, being

Sites such as LinkedIn helps recruiters in recruiting candidates by expanding the reach of their personal networks, contact candidates directly, and manage an array of talent (Schawbel, 2012). With most people being aware that employers do reference their profile for character check, people do believe that employers have the right to view their information in order to learn about the candidates’ personality and to ensure the person is not a liability (Budden, Elkersh, Vicknair, & Yancey, 2010). In conclusion, employers should be using social media only for job-relevant purposes. Employers should take specific steps

Because adolescents are growing up with more access to social networking, texting and instant messaging on various sites have become prime means of communication. While this is not necessarily bad, many people feel the need to over-share things about their personal lives online. More and more people are using Facbeook and more and more employers are using Facebook to scope out potential employees. If there are inappropriate pictures and comments all over someone’s Facebook page, they are more likely to not receive the job. Some students get in trouble for things they post on Facebook and Twitter. Some users are beginning to notice this and have started deactivating their accounts to regain a sense of privacy. CNN’s article “The anti-social network: Life without Facebook”, states that some students who are trying to maintain a professional image for future employment are deleting their pages.

Facebook is a well know social networking site that has taken all over the world with over 500 million people using the site. Social networking sites such as Facebook share information about the user over the Internet, where it can be freely accessed by anyone. This is where issues of privacy to the individual arise. As

The above mentioned example is one of many questioning the credibility of the social networking sites. The fact that anyone can go to a person’s profile and save his/her picture to be used as desired is uncomfortable and disturbing. Another method for the disruption of ethical boundaries in regards to these networking channels is their utilization to conduct predatory marketing. The level of discomfort is high when a product/service is offered to a user on the basis of the needs assessment done by the exploitation of personal information. Some employers are also the culprits due to the fact that they make hiring decisions on the basis of prospective employee’s social network activities. These and many other scenarios lead problem solvers to come up with alternatives and implement productive decisions.

Employers and schools nowadays evaluate applicants from their social media accounts. For example, the applicant’s Facebook profile could be used to get information such as age, residence and even academic history. What worries Joanna Stern in the article, “Demanding Facebook Passwords May Break Law, Say Senators” is the fact that employers and schools require employees and students to give their Facebook passwords to access their profiles. This practice poses unanticipated legal liabilities. Thus, government officials have rose against the practice. Indeed, requiring a user to share Facebook account’s password for access to the user’s profile is morally wrong and does not meet its intended objective.

Almost everyone in developed countries, during this day and age, has social media accounts. There are many platforms of social media including but not limited to: facebook, twitter, instagram, snapchat, myspace, linkedin, etc… And there are many reasons for using these social media platforms such as: keeping contact with old friends and distant relatives, meeting new people and sharing life experiences with people around the globe, or stalking that cute girl at work but never making contact. Among these reasons, and many more is the controversial topic of whether job employers should be able to use of social media to look up applicants. I believe job employers have a right to look up potential employees because doing so would allow them to