The rise of social media has created a growing trend of employers either asking employees to surrender their social media login information or asking prospective employees to “friend” a human resources supervisor. This practice has been discouraged by employment lawyers fearful that employers may be exposing themselves to liability under state and federal discrimination, labor and privacy laws. In light of recent developments nationwide, employers may soon find themselves violating the law when they engage in this practice.
In April 2012, Congressman Eliot Engel (NY) and Rep. Jan Schakowsky (IL) introduced the Social Networking Online Protection Act (SNOPA) in Congress to protect users of social networking sites from disclosing their personal information to employers, universities and schools. SNOPA prohibits potential or current employers from gaining usernames, passwords or other access to employees’ or potential employees’ online content. It also prohibits employers from using such information to discipline, discriminate or deny employment to individuals who refuse to divulge such information. The legislation would also apply a similar restriction on K-12 schools, colleges and universities. However, the federal legislation is lagging behind state developments.
