By Eric B. Meyer
No way, Heisenberg is gonna be cool with this. Not a chance.
Earlier this month, New Mexico joined Maryland, Illinois, California, Michigan, and Utah, by becoming the sixth state to pass a law, which makes it unlawful for an employer to request or require that a prospective employee fork over a social media password as a condition of gaining employment.
However, New Mexico’s law is unique in that it only coves prospective employees, and not the existing workforce.
Lest anyone get the wrong idea, I am not in favor of employers asking candidates or current employees for social media passwords. Instead, as I’ve noted before, there is not empirical evidence that employers asking for social media passwords is a common practice.
Therefore, these laws seek to regulate a “problem” that rarely, if ever, exists.
This was originally published on Eric B. Meyer’s blog, The Employer Handbook.