Many employees are under pressure to allow current and prospective employers access to private social media accounts, which violates a 2013 Colorado law. Businesses still want to know what their employees are up to on Facebook and other sites, but they risk substantial fines if they pressure their staff into giving them access.Colorado House Bill 13-1046, signed by Gov. John Hickenlooper in May 2013, states that employers ìmay not suggest, request or require that an employee or applicant disclose any user name, password or other means for accessing the employee’s or applicant’s personal account or service.î Companies are also prohibited from asking to be ìfriendedî on Facebook or added as a contact on any other site; and asking for changes to privacy settings that would let them see personal posts. Companies that violate the law can be fined between $1,000 and $5,000 for each occurrence.The law doesn’t prohibit current or potential employers from viewing an employee’s social media pages, visible to the public. However, a company that uses some kinds of information in its hiring decision, such as age, race and other discriminatory factors face discrimination claims, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a national nonprofit organization that defends civil liberties relating to the Internet. ìYou wouldn’t hand your keys to a potential employer and let them rummage through your cupboards, pick through your diary and sit in the corner during your dinner parties,î said Dave Maass, EFF spokesman.Some employers are abusing public ignorance of the law. The Falcon Business Entrepreneurs Enhancing Relationships networking group hosted a discussion on the issue in March. Out of the 16 entrepreneurs and businesspeople at the meeting, 12 said they had recently been required to friend employers or suppliers.Securities and financial regulators are the most common exception to HB 13-1046. Federal securities law requires that brokerages and other financial institutions pre-approve and keep records of any form of advertising, which, according to the FINRA and the SEC, the law includes social media posts by financial advisors, insurance salespersons and stockbrokers that mention anything about their field.According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 28 states have introduced or enacted legislation similar to Colorado’s law. Facebook and other social media sites have moved to protect their users nationwide by making it a violation of their terms of service for a user to ask for another user’s account information. An employer that asks for an employee’s Facebook information could find their own corporate account suspended, according to a statement defining Facebookís privacy policy by Erin Egan, Facebook’s chief privacy officer. Employees and candidates who believe their rights under the new law have been violated should contact the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment to file a complaint at http://colorado.gov/cdle.
