Rob Bishop & Jason Chaffetz Want Employers To Access Your Facebook Password
Posted By Eric Ethington (Author) on April 3, 2012
Congressmen Rob Bishop (R) and Jason Chaffetz (R) voted this past week to allow employers to require you turn over your Facebook passwords. In a nearly party-line vote, House Republicans voted unanimously to allow your boss to require you give up your private Facebook and Twitter account info.
Republican Reps Rob Bishop and Jason Chaffetz
It’s a scary new phenomenon, but many employers are now requiring employees to give them access to their private social media accounts, such as facebook and twitter. This includes required lines on job applications where applicants must provide both their usernames and passwords to their online accounts so that companies can login as their employees and monitor what you are saying.
Congressional Democrats introduced a measure this past week that would ban companies from such egregious violations of employees’ right to privacy, but the measure was quickly voted down by every House Republican, including Representatives Rob Bishop and Jason Chaffetz of Utah. Democratic Representative Jim Matheson voted in favor of the bill to protect privacy.
Rep. Perlmutter (D-CO) had this to say:
People have an expectation of privacy when using social media like Facebook and Twitter. They have an expectation that their right to free speech and religion will be respected when they use social media outlets. No American should have to provide their confidential personal passwords as a condition of employment. Both users of social media and those who correspond share the expectation of privacy in their personal communications. Employers essentially can act as imposters and assume the identity of an employee and continually access, monitor and even manipulate an employee’s personal social activities and opinions. That’s simply a step too far.
"Eric, trying to have this (civil rights) conversation with you is ultimately like trying to teach a pig to dance, it just annoys the pig. So Eric, sorry to annoy you."
-Paul Mero, The Sutherland Institute.
Wow, okay. If my employer asked me to hand over my passwords, all they’d get is my long, skinny middle finger. This is a total invasion of privacy. So disappointed in Chaffetz, considering he was against SOPA, but not this? Interesting.
Chaffetz posted on facebook why he voted no. Pretty sound reason, while the “law” would have protected against this particular invasion of privacy, it was too broad and one specific bit of text was quoted: “Nothing in this Act or any amendment made by this Act shall be construed to limit or restrict the ability of the Federal Communications Commission to adopt a rule or to amend an existing rule to protect online privacy…” I for one don’t expect him to vote for any law just because it has one good provision in it, especially if it has a dozen provisions that can be exploited negatively.
Really? You want credibility, post truth. Jason Chaffetz absolutely dos not want employees to access your facebook password. Look around the web. I haven’t found Rob Bishop’s personal quote on the matter; but unless I read him WAY wrong, you are playing out untruths. Yes, they both voted against the legislation; but find out why before you post this crap.