Unbelievable Privacy Intrusion By Bozeman, Montana

Just found this story on ReadWriteWeb.com. You can read the original article on the Montana News Station site.

Pretty unbelievable. Especially, as a commenter points out, because it requires you to violate the TOS for most sites.

Now, I can understand the need to make sure your new employees are being responsible with social media sites. I think it’s also important to make sure employees understand the social media policies of prospective employers. But this is a bit insane.

When I applied to be a DMOZ editor, I had to disclose any website I was associated with. This included any sites I owned, built, consulted on, or maintained. I think this is a reasonable request.

From an employee standpoint, I don’t think I’d mind if my company required me to disclose the sites and usernames of my social media accounts. This might even be desirable in an interview process so a prospective employer can find my real accounts. If an interviewer were to simply Google me, it’s possible that they would find someone with a similar name and a different background. Disclosing my usernames would ensure that the employer had accurate information. But to require me to disclose my usernames and passwords is a blatant violation of my privacy.

I can only hope that the EFF and ACLU take this one up…