The California Senate Committee on Education has approved legislation – ‘The Social Media Privacy Act’ Senate Bill 1349 (SB 1349) – that would prohibit employers from formally requesting or demanding employees or job applicants provide their usernames and passwords to social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Authored by Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco/San Mateo), SB 1349 would also prohibit public and private colleges and universities from requiring similar information from students. The full text of ‘The Social Media Privacy Act’ (SB 1349) is available at: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/11-12/bill/sen/sb_1301-1350/sb_1349_bill_20120327_amended_sen_v98.html. (more…)

According to a new survey on the use of social media sites by employers to evaluate job candidates from CareerBuilder®, the largest online career site in the United States, nearly two in five companies – 37 percent – use social media sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter to research job candidates. An InfoGraphic of the survey, which included more than 2,000 hiring managers and human resource professionals in the U.S. across industries and company sizes, is available at: http://cb.com/HQUCWt. (more…)

The state of Maryland has passed the first law in the nation to prohibit employers from asking employees and job applicants for social media passwords. Both Houses of the Maryland General Assembly have approved identical versions of a social media privacy protection bill – Senate Bill 433 (SB 433)/House Bill 964 (HB 964) – that prohibits employers from requesting or requiring employees or job applicants to disclose their user names or passwords to social media websites such as Facebook and other personal Internet sites and Web-based accounts as a condition of employment. (Update: Maryland Governor Officially Signs Facebook Password Law). (more…)

Responding to an increase in reports of employers seeking to gain “inappropriate access” to social network profiles of job applicants, online social media giant Facebook issued a warning to employers in a recent blog posted on the company website – ‘Protecting Your Passwords and Your Privacy’ – that the practice of asking job applicants for their social media passwords “undermines the privacy expectations and the security of both the user and the user’s friends” and could potentially expose businesses to “unanticipated legal liability.” The blog is available at: http://www.facebook.com/notes/facebook-and-privacy/protecting-your-passwords-and-your-privacy/326598317390057. (more…)

Attorney at Law and safe hiring expert Lester Rosen, founder and CEO of nationwide accredited background check firm Employment Screening Resources (ESR), will present the Business & Legal Resources (BLR) webinar ‘Background Checks: How to Legally Use Credit Inquires, Social Media Searches, and More’ on Thursday, March 22, 2012 from 10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. PST (1:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. EST). For more information about the webinar, visit: http://catalog.blr.com/product.cfm?product=30756000. (more…)