Obviously you should use discretion when you post something on Facebook and take care to keep certain items private. But what if your employer had full, unbridled access to your Facebook profile?
The Daily Mail is reporting that some employers have started asking their employees for the passwords to their Facebook accounts.
The practice caught the ire of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) when the Maryland Department of Corrections (DOC) asked applicants to log into their profiles and click through private messages, photos, wall posts, and other items as the interviewer watched. Called "shoulder surfing," the ACLU said that even though it's technically voluntary, it's a gross violation of privacy.
And it doesn't just extend to applicants. The Daily Mail said the DOC asked Robert Collins for the passwords to his email and Facebook after he had been working there for many years.
"Here I am, a U.S. citizen who hasn't broken any laws, who hasn't committed any crimes, and here I am having a prospective – well, not prospective in my case – an employer, looking at my personal communications, my personal posts, my personal identifiable information," Collins said in a video from the ACLU. "It is an absolute and total invasion and total overreach on their part."
After Collins' case, the department suspended the policy of requesting passwords for 45 days, and instead compromised with "shoulder surfing," the Daily Mail said.
As the Daily Mail noted, sharing passwords is actually a violation of Facebook's terms. The social network's policy on registration and account security reads "you will not share your password… let anyone else access your account, or do anything that might jeopardize the security of your account."
Facebook spokesman Fred Wolens told PCMag in a statement: "Under our terms, only the holder of the email address and password is considered the Facebook account owner. We also prohibit anyone from soliciting the login information or accessing an account belonging to someone else," he said.
Though granting another person unlimited access to your Facebook page is a scary thought, only seven of 2,689 prospective employees with the Maryland DOC were denied a position based on content from their Facebook profiles.
A recent study found that Facebook could actually help someone land a job. Researchers at Northern Illinois University learned that spending less than 10 minutes with someone's Facebook profile can predict their level of success at a job better than most standard personality tests.
Editor's Note: This story was updated at 3pm EST with comments from Facebook.