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Bozeman Drops Requirement For Social Networking Passwords
from the wonder-what-made-that-happen? dept
Last week, we were among a bunch of blogs and news organizations who questioned the fact that the city of Bozeman, Montana was making job applicants hand over not just info on their social networking activities, but usernames and passwords to all accounts. This certainly got a lot of attention, and, not surprisingly it's caused the city to drop the requirement and to say that it had made a mistake (found via Slashdot). Still, it makes you wonder why it took a press onslaught for the city to recognize the potential problems with such a privacy violation.
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Criminals
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Old Noobs
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Re: Criminals
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Isn't it obvious? They knew it was an absurd requirement. They wanted to see if they can get away with it. Had there been no public scandal, they would have went ahead silently.
And yes, pushing the limits like that is more typical of little children. But it's worryingly common among people in positions of power. I'm not sure whether they never actually grow up, or maybe they regress mentally once they can no longer keep up with the times.
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Easy
Its no wonder at all, Mike, as you well know (you're just playing devil's advocate there).
It takes a press onslaught (and public backlash) to get these people to back off of an invasive privacy policy because, absent the backlash, these people in power will ALWAYS (I say, ALWAYS) try to get more and more power over the people they "Serve." See also: Federal Government.
It is only when the people rise and protest loudly over these issues that the people's rights are ever taken into consideration. Otherwise, they will attempt to take even more away from us if they can get away with it.
To all you mouth-breathing Apologitards(tm) out there who come to the defense of these people (and the RIAA, govt, etc) ....THIS is why you dont accept things under the "well, if you've got nothing to hide..." bullshit argument for not standing up for your rights.
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Response to RD 9:08 AM
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Re: Response to RD 9:08 AM
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Amusingly enough, according to Newsy.com Facebook reported last week that they'd be in touch with the city. When a city government gets its hand smacked by a social site, that says something about both parties.
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