Employees across the nation are breathing easier now that more states are passing laws banning supervisors from requesting the passwords of their workers' social media accounts.
A total of 17 states have already passed laws making it illegal for bosses to demand login information for employees' Facebook, Twitter, email and other online accounts, USA Today reported.
Over 20 more states are considering similar legislation, much to the chagrin of employers who say they have the right to see if employees are engaging in online activity that could damage the company's reputation.
"They're trying to protect their organization," Nancy Flynn of ePolicy Institute, which advices employees on online policy, told the newspaper. "They're not just trying to snoop around and look at embarrassing photos. They are trying to protect their company, their customers, their investors."
But as social media becomes a ubiquitous part of American society, more states are recognizing the need to make sure the law keeps up. A December Pew Research Center survey found that 73 percent of adults in the U.S. use social media.
"I think this is a visceral reaction," Allie Bohm, a policy strategist from the American Civil Liberties Union, told USA Today. "Privacy in the digital age is an incredibly hot topic."
Maryland resident Robert Collins remembers the day a hiring investigator asked him for his Facebook password as part of his reinstatement interview after taking family leave in 2010. The investigator implied Collins was affiliated with a gang, USA Today reported.
"I said, 'you can't be serious,' " Collins told the Maryland House Economic Matters Committee. "He said, 'I am as serious as a heart attack.' "
Thinking he would lose his job, Collins "reluctantly" told him his password.
Maryland was the first state to pass a law for online privacy in the workplace. Wisconsin, Louisiana, Tennessee and Oklahoma have also followed suit. Some states also ban colleges, school administrators, government and private employers from requesting passwords.
"Fifty years ago, if somebody brought in a stack of personal correspondence and put it in their locker, the employer wouldn't demand to see it," Kyle Loveless, an Oklahoma Senator who sponsored the state's online privacy legislation. "In today's time, people put (personal correspondence) online. An employer shouldn't have the right to see it."
