NJ Bill Allows Employees and Students to Sue if Forced to Reveal Facebook Profiles

We’ve asked before whether or not you’d be willing to provide your Facebook password to a prospective employer.

Personally, I wouldn’t. They don't need to see pictures of my grandson Nicky Boy crawling around on the deck.

Well, it turns out there’s a bill that just passed a Senate committee that would allow employees and students to sue if their jobs or universities forced them to reveal their Facebook profiles.

According to this:

Under legislation that cleared the Senate Labor Committee today, the two bills (S1915 and S1916) would bar employers from forcing employees to disclose their social networking usernames or passwords, or even forcing them to reveal if they have an account on sites like Facebook and Twitter.

Employers would also face state penalties of up to $2,500, while colleges could be fined up to $2,000.

The bills passed 4-0 with one abstention.

Business groups said they favor barring employers from requiring workers from disclosing the information but opposed letting them sue.

“Even if an employer is without false and he or she has done nothing wrong and has a claim against him or her that is without any kind of merits, the employer is still going to have to spend a lot of time and money defending against a lawsuit,” said Stefanie Riehl, assistant vice president for the New Jersey Business and Industry Association.

At least 10 other state Legislatures have similar measures before them while Maryland has signed one into law. But businesses advocates stressed the Maryland law does not allow employees to sue.
And there’s the rub.

Do you think you should be allowed to sue if an employer forces you to reveal your Facebook profile?

You may be thinking, "...sure, why not go for the “easy money!”…but isn’t that what we’ve all been complaining about.

How litigious our society has become.

And how hard it is for businesses to grow here in this state.

I’m all for banning employers from allowing them access to that information….but having the right to sue is going overboard.

What say you?