Social Media Username & Privacy Protection Bill
by Kevin Connell – April 13, 2012
Annapolis, MD – On Tuesday April 10, the State of Maryland became the first state in the nation to pass a law protecting potential employees’ Facebook and other social media pages with an electronic privacy law that will take effect on October 1, 2012.
Maryland had this on the legislative agenda a year ago, but the bill died as the legislative year ended.
I call this the Facebook No Snoop Law, however, the formal name coined in MD is the User Name and Password Privacy Protection and Exclusions bill, which prohibits all employers in the state from requesting or requiring an employee or applicant to disclose any personal login information on an applicant or employee’s Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest or other Social Media account.
Requests for social media passwords to sites such as Facebook have consistently made news over the past three years, it was only a matter of time for this type of legislature to debut, other states with social networking privacy bills include: California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, and Minnesota, look fo more states to join this list.
Social media websites such as Facebook have publicly opposed the practice of employers snooping on applicant and employees social media websites, in fact, it is a direct violation that is contained in Facebook’s terms of use, these terms are rarely read by most individuals.
According to Facebook’s statement of rights and responsibilities, users “will not share your password, let anyone else access your account, or do anything else that might jeopardize the security of your account.”
No Maryland companies are excluded from the act, though enforcement will be left up to the employers and their applicants, the bill now awaits governor O’Malley’s signature.
Kevin Connell is CEO and Founder of AccuScreen.com; a global employment background screening firm headquartered in Tampa, FL. He is an author, speaker and a frequent Television & Radio guest, appearing on over 127 television and radio channels, including Fox News and ABC News Money Matters. For more information: www.AccuScreen.com or www.KevinConnell.com
