BW Communities

Your Password Or Your Job?

BW Online Bureau Nov 08, 2014

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><root available-locales="en_US," default-locale="en_US"><static-content language-id="en_US"><![CDATA[You can't but help feel outraged at the story of Justin Bassett, Seattle citizen who was asked at a job interview, to hand over his Facebook login and password. Understandably, he withdrew his application and wanted nothing further to do with the company. I'd surely have done the same – after making a huge noise first. After all, the offline equivalent would be like gate-crashing a party the candidate is attending, landing up to observe him when he's at home, with his friends, or out on a holiday.  Not everyone would have walked out. In the US, Bassett's case wasn't a one-off but a trend and people are getting increasingly unsurprised when their social media activities are scanned at hiring time. While you can understand a hiring company wanting to know who would be working for them, there are many hairy issues raised here.  One CEO explained to me that information online was now a given. Why would one not use it to research someone's background? "There was one time when we discovered that a person we were hiring had a police case against him – for data theft. And that's hardly something we want happening in our company," he told me. It's now routine to Google someone online and see what the search throws up. Does the person seem active online – in which case it may mean he or she is keeping up with new technologies instead of being technophobic. Is there a blog? Are there any presentations on SlideShare, useful posts on Twitter? A solid LinkedIn profile and recommendations? In much the same way, a Facebook page can reveal say, an odd note, or something drastically wrong. HR departments and executive recruitment firms are paying people to do a thorough job of research on each candidate they take up.  Fascinatingly, we in India aren't half as bothered about privacy. I chatted with Supreme Court lawyer and cyber law expert, Pavan Duggal, who agreed that privacy concerns differ from one culture to another. He said that in India, where we've had a long tradition of joint families, we're accustomed to sharing information freely. He even felt job candidates would be unhesitant and perhaps even proud to show off their accounts. But forcing a candidate to give up a password and login would be another matter. That's punishable under sections 43 and 66 of the IT Act and could land the coercer in jail for three years. But of course, it isn't illegal to ask for the password – only to force. India doesn't even have privacy laws, as Pavan Duggal points out. In some countries, even Googling a person to check him or her out is not allowed. And Germany, as we know from recent noise over Facebook privacy, are pretty touchy about who wants to know what. In the US, there is so much sudden outrage sparked off by the Bassett case that several states are working on legislation to stop companies from even requesting access to online accounts. After all, what next – email? Facebook says giving your password to anyone is in violation of its user agreement and warns companies that look into accounts and then don't hire a candidate could face charges of discrimination in some situations. Such as when you see that a woman is pregnant and don't hire her, for example. A company may want to find out all it can, but so much of what you find could be anecdotal. Let's say for instance that a person has changed jobs twice over the past few months. He announces the change on Facebook, and a friend or two happen to tease him for being an inveterate job-shopper. But perhaps he isn't one. Perhaps he discovered that a line of work he took up didn't excite him at all. Perhaps he was strong enough to act on the decision to change. Or perhaps there was a brilliant offer he was eager to take up. Now, a researcher may well misinterpret this or not look beyond the surface and report incorrectly. On the other hand, one may find online a clear demonstration of focus on work and evident domain knowledge. But as someone who studied psychology and worked with psychological tests, it occurs to me that, other than ruling out something drastic such as obvious signs that a candidate is say, an active trouble-maker, there's not much you can find out to predict future performance and workplace behavior. It was difficult enough with apparently scientific tests and it would be too anecdotal and open to misinterpretation by scanning random social media activity.  Clearly we need to start thinking about how we need to handle online privacy in our country.