The diversity perspective: Would you want to
work for an employer who asks you for your password of your social media
account?
On 2nd May
2012, Governor O’Malley approved Senate Bill 433, prohibiting an employer from
requesting a user name or password for accessing a personal internet account (http://mlis.state.md.us/2012rs/billfile/sb0433.htm). Maryland is the first state to
making such employer requests illegal. Similar legislations in several other
states are pending.
There are many
practical problems with accessing someone else’s personal account. First of
all, computer users agree not to share their user name and password with
anyone. Sharing the information with a prospective employer would at the very
least, violate such agreements. Additionally, the employer would “penalize”
honest applicants, as in most cases, social media profiles can be marked as
“private” and therefore would be difficult to find through internet research,
in case the user refuses to share this information about his/her account
voluntarily.
Apart from the privacy
question, practical, legal and ethical questions arise.
The diversity and equal opportunity perspective
What would an employer
find after logging into an applicant’s account? Private pictures, information
about the applicants’ friends? How would the information that the employer
finds in such a private environment be judged? By what standard? What mechanism
does the employer have put in place for example, to avoid “unintended”
discrimination? If everyone had to present and conduct him/herself as a
professional at all times how would that affect diversity? Isn’t the fact that
people can live their personal lives according to their standards, what makes
diversity possible, in the first place?
To ensure the highest level of equality, fairness and lowest possibility for “unintended” discrimination, employers should keep the focus during the hiring processes on objective questions that lead to the answer of one question only: can the applicant do the job?
Keine Kommentare:
Kommentar veröffentlichen