Police: Have to give up some Privacy

and the slaying of privacy continues. How much is enough? stupid.

 

As long as they know going in what is required of them, I see no problem. No one is forcing them to join the police department. I don't see how this is any different than some company asking the same. If I applied for a job at (for example) IBM and a condition of my employment was listing my social media sites, then I could choose to do so or choose to apply somewhere else.

 

Don't some jobs look at this stuff now anyway?

 

you mean stuff you put on the internet is going to be looked at by other people?!

 

They'll never get my password, but I'm not afraid of anything a prospective employer would find. That said, if I had to apply for a job that asked, I would probably delete my profile ahead of time. There are just some things that I prefer to have to actively show at my place of work. You don't need to see pictures of my kids or my rantings about the $800 lamp I saw in a shop in the Galleria area unless I know you well enough to show you that stuff on my iPhone.

 

Public position with extralegal authority and politically accountable superiors, this seems like a predictable and unavoidable request. I have no idea if that makes it right or not, and I wouldn't want a veteran officer's public contributions to be overshadowed by quasi-private, informal personal behavior.

 

My usual Liberty 101 comments again, the extreme skeptic in me doesnt think ANYONE in any institution should be left unchecked to do as they please - law enforcement, politicians, business, health care, religion, men, women, children, AND science. Everyone has to get the shakedown of accountability, no selective transparency.

But the "off the clock standards" thing means they have to still be police-like off duty cuz their employer says so. Maybe they SHOULD, but I dont think that notion needs to be reinforced by their employer having all day access to their Facebook page.

Or maybe it corresponds with this thread of bad cops on the loose that need to be checked
http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?p=5972843#post5972843

 

?

From the article:

Lt. Dearing said the policy actually applies to all applicants to the department, including officers and civilians. They aren't required to share their password, but must either "friend" the background investigator or sign in for him.

 

Also from the article:

In Norman, Okla. police department employees have to share their passwords so bosses can check postings and pictures.

 

Many jobs do a search of social networking sites already and will screen applicants by looking at them on Facebook.

Anyway I don't know how many times it needs to be said but it bears repeating. Facebook aint private.

When you post on Facebook it is Facebook's cyber property. You don't have a right to privacy on there and Facebooks privacy policy is about attracting people to join and stay on Facebook than go to some other social networking site. Anyway for practical purposes the whole nature of social networking sites work against privacy since even though you think you are only posting stuff for your friends to see they are free to pass that onto their friends and so on. Consider someone with 500 friends and each of those with 500 friends and so on. Now a rant you post about your employer could easily be disseminated to thousands of people and get back to your employer even if they weren't looking for it or Facebook guaranteed not to share any of that with a third party. You yourself are tacitly agreeing to share it with third, fourth and so parties just by posting.

 

If you set your privacy settings properly on Facebook then you can make it so that you are non existent to everyone except the people on your friend's list (and of course the people at facebook).

 

The problem isn't what anyone posts to their Facebook account, it's what your friends post that is the issue.

You have to be vigilant about deleting all those tags to make sure no one sees who you actually hang out with.