Students are frequently warned to watch what they put on Facebook, but little do they know that it could affect their future employment.
Recently, the Associated Press published a story about employers asking prospective employees for their Facebook usernames and passwords.
The AP article reported a situation in which a New York City statistician was not only questioned about his experience and his references, but for his Facebook username and password as well.
Linda Moore, the director of Career Services, said asking prospective employees for their Facebook usernames and passwords is a constitutional issue of privacy in a world with new lines of communication.
"Some employers have always been concerned about the public image that their employees project," she said. "Social media is somewhat in the public space, but yet private as well."
Moore said in many cases, defamation and slander cases show there has been long-term interest in the impact of what people say.
An example she used of privacy was employers never being granted access to private phone conversations.
"Social media communication is somewhere in the continuum of interpersonal conversation, and our society will have to sort out the boundaries of its public and private nature," Moore said.
She said in some positions, private life blurs with work life, but for the most part has no impact on work.
"Overall, employment law is full of litigated cases that shows much a job applicant's private information has no relevance to work ability, qualifications and performance," she said.
Moore said sometimes employers are led into faulty decisions because of stereotypes or biases based on personal life aspects.
People give out their personal information all too freely on sites such as Facebook, and the more technology is incorporated, the less private people's lives will be.
Students often simply make their information and/or pictures private or change their Facebook names to their first and middle names instead of their first and last names so employers cannot find them.
"As for social media, its relationship with the employment world will likely be murky for a period of time as society tries to find the right boundaries between an employer's need to know certain things and an employee's right to privacy," Moore said.
Kate Brantley, a junior sociology major, said employers having access to all Facebook information is an invasion of privacy.
"What if students have private messages to their boyfriends or even medical information," she said. "Facebook isn't just a social network, it's very personal too."
Brantley said if she was asked to give her username and password, she would change her password as soon as she could afterwards.
Mark Hudson, the director of University Housing and Dining Services, said he thinks asking for usernames and passwords while applying for jobs is crossing the line.
"It's gotten to the point where technology allows access to all kinds of personal information," he said. "A lot of times what your Facebook says about you reflects what you value."
Hudson said all too often people have a sense that Facebook profiles can be made private, but people can access them anyway.
"If you post something to the Internet, its there for good," he said. "Students need to be smart about what they post on their profiles."
He said students putting up information that is false or is trying to create an image for themselves can affect their job searches, especially for the current college generation.
Although a lot of the new privacy issues that are coming up are "uncharted territory," Hudson said, profile owners still need to be careful what they post.
"Facebook is like your own personal Wikipedia because you can put out whatever you want," he said. "Wikipedia isn't always accurate, but you still have that responsibility to accurately reflect who you are."
Hudson said social media sites are an easy way to judge people, and it's no wonder that issues such as this one have come up nationally.
"People need to be true to themselves and be true to their Facebook," he said.
Anna Bomberry, a sophomore education major, said she thinks employers having that much access is excessive.
"They can get enough information just by looking at a profile, they don't actually need to be on the account as well," she said.
She said the current college population might be at risk when they are interviewed for jobs.
"I think a lot less people will get jobs if employers start doing this more," she said.
Robyn Dexter can be reached at 581-2812 or redexter@eiu.edu.
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