Your Password & Your Privacy

Recently there has been a buzz building about the fact that some employers are asking job applicants to disclose their Facebook password as another tool to better identify who will be a good fit for both the company and the available position. Two U.S. Senators have called for an investigation over the legality of the practice. (Fox News: Senators call for federal probe over employers asking for Facebook passwords)

At the very basic level, asking prospective or current employees for passwords is disturbing because everybody knows that passwords themselves are supposed to be private, let alone the information they are supposed to protect. If the applicant is like me and uses just a handful of different passwords for all online activities, divulging the password to one site could be the same as giving access to many more. The employer would then have access to not only my social media sites, but also my bank accounts, medical records, online shopping history and so much more. And when and if the company's security policies are breached, my very identity is at risk.

Let's set aside those concerns for a moment and take a look at something more curious - Facebook's statement:

"We don't think employers should be asking prospective employees to provide their passwords because we don't think it's the right thing to do. While we do not have any immediate plans to take legal action against any specific employers, we look forward to engaging with policy makers and other stakeholders, to help better safeguard the privacy of our users."

Let's face it, that last comment could almost be funny. Everyday Facebook is encouraging us to share more and more information with more and more people. How Facebook uses that information and their own privacy terms have been the source of much concern and discussion. Now we're supposed to buy the fact that Facebook's intent is "to help better safeguard the privacy of our users"?  Facebook and privacy are not synonymous - users should not be looking to Facebook for protection.

Add in the fact that every U.S. citizen is required to have a Social Security number that is routinely used as identification for everything from tax returns to credit reports, and I wouldn't look to government as being the best defenders of anybody's private information either.

So what can we do? Though it can be a never-ending struggle to manage our information, there are a few simple things we can all do to safeguard our own privacy while we let our legislators and policymakers try to play keep-up with the ever-changing world of technology:

• Don't ever give out passwords
• Use different passwords on different sites and change them often
• Limit the amount of personal information shared - both online and off

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