I've been trying to figure out why "job providers" now need applicants to reveal their Facebook passwords.
They already had the ability (and the right) to visit your Facebook page and find out whether you Like lolcats or George Takei's jokes; whether your Farmville is overgrown with weeds or you've slaughtered entire neighborhoods in Mob Wars; and whether you've shared posts from 350.org, Tea Patriots, or TMZ. If all they wanted to do was check out how many photos you've posted of yourself stumbling down drunk in a bar or bleary-eyed in an Amsterdam hashish den, they could simply demand that you "friend" them.
But your password? Given that for the typical job applicant, applying for jobs is itself a full-time job, that's a lot of companies who would be able to pose as you and elicit opinions about you from your Aunt Brenda, the ex-boyfriend who still thinks you're coming back to him someday, that girl from study hall in high school, or that guy who thought you were the sax player in a jazz ensemble he was in back in 1973 but when he found out you weren't he kept you on as a friend anyway because you share a casual interest in "The Mentalist."
What are employers going to demand next? The PIN to your bank account? The keys to your house?
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