While we should always be careful of what we post on social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter as it could affect our future or current employment, having companies ask for access to your Facebook account is a big no-no. In fact in some states such as California and Illinois, asking for an employee’s Facebook password is considered to be illegal.
Unfortunately it seems that the protection of privacy does not apply to students. The law which came into effect on the 1st of January does not explicitly state that schools are allowed to ask for the passwords to a student’s Facebook account. Instead it states that schools are allowed to ask for the password if the parents are notified in advance and only if the student has violated policy. The idea here isn’t so much an invasion of privacy, but rather an attempt to crackdown on cyberbullying, but at the same time it is understandable as to why many feel uncomfortable with the idea.
Parents of students in Illinois have begun to receive letters from school authorities which according to Motherboard who obtained one of the letters reads, “School authorities may require a student or his or her parent/guardian to provide a password or other related account information in order to gain access to his/her account or profile on a social networking website if school authorities have reasonable cause to believe that a student’s account on a social networking site contains evidence that a student has violated a school disciplinary rule or procedure.”
Now this sounds like it might only be limited to school computers and activities conducted on school premises, but it seems that it will also apply to students anytime regardless of where they made their posting. This leaves the door open to many questions – what if in the process of searching, school authorities discover something else, are they then obliged to keep that a secret for the sake of privacy, or will they have to report that too?
In any case it does sound like a rather slippery slope, but what do you guys think?