In the US, UK and several other countries, employers are requiring that employees hand over their Facebook / Linkedin / etc accounts during the hiring process.

Some are requiring applicants to login to their social media accounts, with the interviewer looking over their shoulders, so that the employers can claim that they did not demand usernames & passwords…just a peek at the data.

From The Register:

The Facebook job test: Now interviewers want your logins

Need work? Better hand over that password

By Dan Olds, Gabriel Consulting • Get more from this author

Posted in HPC Blog, 21st March 2012 13:42 GMT

HPC blog When I wrote this blog about how a recent research study correlated social network behavior with employee success, I speculated that we’d soon see employers trying to circumvent Facebook’s privacy policies in order to get a good look at your Facebook pages.

Well, it turns out that some employers aren’t happy with just seeing the public part of applicant profiles; they’re actually asking prospective employees to turn over their Facebook login and password. Wait, did I get that right? (Looks again.) Yeah, I did. They’re outright asking applicants to give them their Facebook login details as part of the interview screening process.

Other companies are requesting that prospective (and presumably current) employees “friend” HR reps or background-checkers on Facebook. Others are requiring applicants to log in to their Facebook accounts from a company-owned computer – I guess they take screen scrapes of the page for later study, or maybe capture the login keystrokes.

If a company requires you to give them an intimate view of your social networking pages during the interview process, might there be something in the employment agreements that gives them the “right” to take a second, third, or fourth look – whenever they want to – after you’re hired?

via The Facebook job test: Now interviewers want your logins • The Register.