Employers who want their prospective employees Facebook passwords will not longer have the option if a bill introduced into the Senate this past week becomes law.
To sponsor the bill, Senator Jacob Candelaria, a Democrat aims to protect privacy for New Mexicans. The bill would make it illegal for bosses to ask for potential employee’s password to their protected online accounts such as their Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
“We don’t allow someone when you’re applying for a job to go look in your mailbox and open your mail or read your text messages. So I think we should extend the same privacy protections to employees for social media that we do for mail and other private information,” says Candelaria.
Dave Neadle, an Albuquerque man making a shopping run, says you shouldn’t have to share your password to get a job.
“I think it’s a matter of privacy. I have never been asked for a password to a private account. I have never considered it an infringement of my rights, but I could see how someone else may.”
The bill will only apply to prospective employees’ accounts, and will not cover existing employees.