Snapshot Post--Mini-Musings on The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly Wanted: Your Social Media Footprint and Passwords

The city government of Bozeman, Montana, population 27, 509 has managed to step into a social media mess, infuriating people to the point that the City Attorney has been receiving an email a minute, some from as far away as the UK.

What dastardly thing has Bozeman done? Ask their HR department. The city has impleted new requirements for potential job interviewees. People wanting jobs with the city of Bozeman must sign a waiver allowing investigation of not just their past employment, criminal background and credit history, but all of their online activity: Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, blogs, websites, you name it. If that's not enough to ring your privacy bell, consider this: these job applicants are required to hand over their passwords to their accounts to whomever is taking their application.
　
Identity theft is one thing, but this may be a case of superhighway robbery with the masked bandits operating under the benevolent banner of local government. Not surprisingly, Bozeman's new HR policy has set off a barrage of social media crossfire; tweets are flying and a poll done by the local CBS affiliate, KBZK (http://www.kbzk.com), had almost 5,000 responses within 24 hours of the story breaking ... with 98% of respondents against the city's policy.

This situation underscores what can happen when a zealous few at City Hall decide to use the ugly side of social media, but it also points out that in an open society social media introduces a dose of self-correction ... the wisdom of the crowd can prevail.

The City of Bozeman's HR department is now looking into these hiring requirements to see if there should be limits on the social media footprints that they should follow. Read more...

UPDATE: Shortly after this post went live we learned that the City of Bozeman revised it's screening process for job applicants. Passwords are no longer required. But potential employees everywhere beware: your social media footprints still have a half-life that can come back to haunt you when you least expect it ... with or without handing over your passwords.