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Facebook Password Is Fair Game Summary

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Should an employer be able to ask for your Facebook password? This is the question Alfred Edmond Jr. is attempting to answer in his essay “Why Asking for a Job Applicant's Facebook password Is Fair Game”. This essay explores his thought process as he supports his answers when he was asked a similar question, “should business owners be allowed to ask job applicants for their Facebook passwords?” on MSNBC’s Your Business. In this essay he gives two different responses. One in the perspective of an applicant and the other in the perspective of a business owner. As an applicant he states “.. I would see if there were ways I could address the potential employer’s concerns without revealing my password such as changing my privacy setting to give …show more content…

Edmond states,“ Depending on the position, knowing everything I possibly can about an applicant is critical to not only making the best hire, but to protecting the interests of my current employees, customers, and partners as well as the financial interests of the company.” (134). If on the applicant’s credit check, showed that they are irresponsible with their own money how can a potential employer trust large amounts of money to them? With Facebook checks, if a person is found to upload a lot of potential private things of the individual how can they be trusted when working on sensitive …show more content…

He give an example of him being a business owner in the childcare industry. He states, “ If I am running a school or a daycare center, the time to find out that a teacher or other worker has a record of inappropriate social media communication with minors, or worse, a history of or predilection for sexual relationships with students, is during the hiring process..” (133). If the reader felt nothing towards the material things they might feel something regarding the safety of children. By bringing up the topic of kids, the reader might become more attached because they wouldn’t want a child to be mistreated. Social media tends to be a place where individuals can go on and express their interest. Now, if a candidate has the suspicious activity regarding the treatment of children it wouldn’t make sense for him to hire the candidate.
Another way he supports his claim is by countering the argument of invasion of privacy. Edmond states, “.. if you’re getting something for free, you’re not the customer, you’re the product. Social media is designed for the information shared on it to be search and shared- and mined for profit.” (134). By saying this he states even if the employer cannot directly see what the potential employee is doing someone else can. The author doesn’t seem to believe that there can be truly private things on social

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