This bill, which already has passed in a similar version in Maryland, is a necessary step in protecting employees’ rights. As social media websites have become more prevalent around the world, the optional privacy settings provided by these websites keeps employers from accessing potential employees’ personal information. These privacy settings were created for a reason, and employers should not have the right to access certain information from a private profile.

Opsommer said in a recent article in The State News “(Potential bill could protect social media users’ privacy” SN 5/14), “If 50 years ago, as part of the interview process, an employer said they needed to look through your mail, or put a bug on your phone before they would hire you, there is no way the practice would be tolerated.” Opsommer illustrates in this statement the importance of keeping an employee’s private matters private, and it’s inappropriate for employers to delve into their workers’ personal lives.

An employee’s private life and his or her public life displayed through employment are two completely different spectrums that should be kept separate. Employers most likely would be upset if their employees brought personal matters to work or let their private lives affect their work habits, but to pre-emptively violate an employee’s privacy in order to collect personal information should not be tolerated.

It is necessary to note all public information, or information that can be found by simply putting a person’s name into a search engine, is fair game for employers to consider when examining a potential employee. Anything that easily can be found in the public domain by an employer can just as easily be found by the general public, and thus could reflect poorly on the company as a whole, especially if a potential employee blatantly has displayed him or herself in an inappropriate fashion.

But putting a person’s name into a search engine is completely different than requiring them to give an employer a password to a social media profile. Although employers might say they will use the password to look through profile pictures and observe the person’s attitude and disposition around his or her friends, there isn’t anything to stop employers from going through an employee’s personal messages. Requiring an employee to submit his or her password is a gross overreaching of an employer into a worker’s personal life, and it seems employers are taking advantage of their authority.

This bill is something that should have been implemented a long time ago when social media websites became popular. When a potential employee keeps their information private, they do so for a reason, and there are some things employers do not need to know.