Marketing Director

Invasions of Privacy: Facebook Employee Passwords

You're in a job interview; nervous and optimistic, when suddenly you are asked to hand over your personal phonebook, diary, scrapbook and family correspondance....

It's not quite like that. What people are being asked for is their Facebook login and password. This is an invasion of privacy. Job candidates and existing employees are put in a very compromising position when they are first asked. According to UK employment lawyers cited in the Telegraph prospective employees being asked for their usernames and passwords isn't illegal.
“I think it’s very dangerous and unnecessary to start asking people for access into their personal lives. Once you start asking people to reveal everything about themselves, which is irrelevant to their ability to be able to do a job, you are getting into a tricky area. It’s the equivalent of getting people to spy on prospective staff down at the pub before hiring them. It’s also quite a lazy way by bosses to get a full picture of somebody and shows that their interviewing process is unsatisfactory.” 
- Sarah Veale, Head of Equality and Employment Rights, Trades Union Congress.
It's a quagmire for both employees and their employers. Both groups should be most concerned with
what can be seen by others on the Facebook page. A simple Facebook search can help with that. Organizations shouldn't be asking employees for this information unless it pertains directly to the job or the employee has/is publicly bashing employers past, present or future. What matters is:
  1. Is the employee publicly connected to the organization?
  2. Does the employee talk about specific work related business on Facebook where others can read it?
  3. Does the use of Facebook effect the relationship between the employee and their work?
Saying yes to each item makes what is done publicly matter to the organization and for good reason.  Organizations are overreaching requesting administrative access yet potential and existing employees are not getting hired and losing their jobs. Facebook has chimed in on the topic and in no uncertain terms says that it doesn't support this practice:
"In recent months, we’ve seen a distressing increase in reports of employers or others seeking to gain inappropriate access to people’s Facebook profiles or private information. This practice undermines the privacy expectations and the security of both the user and the user’s friends. It also potentially exposes the employer who seeks this access to unanticipated legal liability. 
The most alarming of these practices is the reported incidents of employers asking prospective or actual employees to reveal their passwords. If you are a Facebook user, you should never have to share your password, let anyone access your account, or do anything that might jeopardize the security of your account or violate the privacy of your friends." - Facebook.com
In the United States spotlight grabbing politicians are pushing the Feds to investigate this issue. Some originally insinuated that Facebook would take legal action against employers who asked for logins and passwords. This was recently rebuffed by Facebook. According to some less sensational reports the practice is pretty rare, for now. In Canada the practice may be even rarer as the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms prohibits this type of request based on discrimination. According to the Spec:
"There is no law that particularly prohibits an employer from asking for that password. It does not specifically violate any privacy legislation. But, by asking that question, employers expose themselves to complaints of discrimination under human rights legislation. 
Both the Ontario and Canada human rights legislation prohibit discrimination in employment on the basis of, among other things, race, ancestry, place of origin, ethnic origin, citizenship, creed, sexual orientation, age, family status, marital status or handicap. That’s a long list of things you wouldn’t usually learn during a job interview. It is contrary to human rights legislation to ask questions with respect to these issues." - TheSpec.com
I will soon be publishing a case study I worked on recently where an employee was fired for what they posted on Facebook. The dismissal was supported by a ruling by an outside arbitrator. Asking for your Facebook login and password is a preventative measure in the minds of some of those who ask, but surely over steps the bounds of human rights and common decency.  Would you want to work for an organization that demanded your login and password for Facebook?

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Maturing at the Lectern: Confidence

photo by: @jeremylim
Confidence. The word itself is powerful and complex. The concept maybe even more so. It is said the greatest fear people have is public speaking. For others it's not only a fear, but a thrill, a joy, a privilege and a delight. Recently during a day of back-to-back speaking engagements I started to feel something more than at ease in front of the audience. I felt able and prepared to lead a learning exploration. To field their questions and prepared to go 'off track'. Most of all, I like the audience to be in control.

The following presentation was prepared as a Professional Development lunch and learn for a real estate development firm in Vancouver. The audience was great and the boardroom was packed full. The presentation has a Personal/Professional Development focus. This presentation was created from scratch specifically for this purpose.


Networked Social Opportunity


Earlier that day I had the opportunity to speak to Health Care Professionals at the Four Seasons Hotel in Vancouver during a health care Quality Forum as part of 'Health Care Social Media Camp'. This is the kind of work that I do upon request. The following presentation was designed to incorporate some older elements of my 'intro to social media' presentations. I also brought in a strong focus on health care with specific items around policy and a complete section of examples of implementations for health care in social communications...
Health Care Social Media Camp - Twitter Presentation

Standing in front of both audiences I felt an unusual sense of calm. Nervousness when speaking in front of people often drives my presentation energy. In these cases I felt confident that I could deliver on the expectations of the audience while allowing them to guide the presentations. Being prepared and knowing the audience ultimately helps lead to that confidence. It's different depending on what capacity one is speaking in and what kind of event it is. What do you find as an audience member? As a presenter?

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Google+ Copies Facebook: Or is it Us?





Besides having the heads positioned in an opposing fashion there is little to nothing that's different about these two profiles.

Similarities

  • The new 'banner' image is fully replicated.
  • Vitals directly below the profile pic.
  • The tabbed options look and function similarly but there are different.
  • Timeline style profile - industry standard.
  • Positioning of the top right settings and account menu - industry standard.
  • Position of logo on the top left - industry standard.
  • Position of search field: this is an industry standard.

Differences

  • Where Facebook has ads; Google+ has ominous white space.
  • Google+ has profile style tabs; Facebook integrates that into an extra row on the profile.
  • Google+ clearly displays the nav bar on the left hand side - industry standard.

Are we as humans that predictable that everything on the top of a web page should obey a certain order? Maybe, yes. Are we heading to a face off between these platforms? Yes. May other platforms out there be different and present differently? Yes. You be the judge of the majors by telling me - @kempedu - if you believe LinkedIn or Twitter are operating on the same user design principles for profile pages.


 



For me the most interesting contrast between all of these profiles is how they attempt to get new users to sign up. When I captured these shots I logged out. Facebook doesn't allow non-users to see my profile unless they login or sign-up. It's not hard to tell who understand that users are at the core of almost everywhere iteration of computing technology. The bottom line is...

Users Rule




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