On May 2, 2012, Martin O'Malley signed S.B. 433 in to law. This relatively new law takes on a portion of privacy control never really discussed before-- online privacy and the workplace. What S.B. 433 is prohibit employers from requesting the social media passwords or accessing the social media accounts of prospective and current employees. This is the first law of its type to be passed in any state, making Maryland a pioneer in civil liberties. The law, which was just enacted October 1st, 2012, will spare prospective or current employees from forking over their personal information such as anything to do with, “computers, telephones, personal digital assistants, and other similar devices,” but does not limit employers from looking at internal system accounts to do with their own company (SHRM).This began when a Maryland employee was asked by his former employer to provide his Facebook username and password in order to be reinstated. After this incident that he filed with the ACLU against his employer, there was soon a new law that was in the making. He described the incidence as "been violated" and "disrespected".
In my own opinion, there should be a strict line between what is and what is not privacy. Unfortunately, there is always some sort of situation that blurs the boundaries and calls for a much more in-depth look as to what privacy entails.
In an age where the internet is growing rapidly and social media has a major grasp on our lives, it seems that privacy would be of utmost importance to people. Yet, you would be surprised at how many peoples Facebook and Twitter pages are out and open for the stalking and gathering of information.
Even if people see that there are laws protecting there privacy in situations like these, do they understand what privacy really is? Or if they, or all of us, even have any?
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Although employers in Maryland are now prohibited from requesting social media passwords and access to accounts to protect user privacy, many college sports teams require students to “friend” at least one of their coaches, as researched above. I believe that this means that even people who do find privacy very important are finding themselves exposed in the social networking world. According to Bob Sullivan's article "Govt. agencies, colleges demand applicants' Facebook passwords", North Carolina University rules state that “"Each team must identify at least one coach or administrator who is responsible for having access to and regularly monitoring the content of team members’ social networking sites and postings”.
Facebook spokesman Frederic Wolens also comments that the site’s terms “prohibit anyone from soliciting the login information or accessing an account belonging to someone else”. So now not only is the question of violating the First Amendment brought into play, but many companies and universities are actually violating Facebook’s policies. So although there are cases where there is a distinct line between what is private and what is not, people do not always follow this distinction as the policies are not enforced.
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