Michigan is the latest state to pass a bill that prevents employers and schools from requesting login information for social networks. Governor Rick Snyder signed House Bill 5523 on Friday, saying that "potential employees and students should be judged on their skills and abilities, not private online activity." Anyone breaching the new law faces "up to 93 days in jail" as well as a $1,000 fine.

This isn't the first time an individual state has taken steps to protect employees from divulging their personal social network information. Maryland became the first state to ban the practice back in April, with several other states - including Dela …

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The fight to prevent California employers and universities from demanding your Facebook login as a condition of employment or enrollment officially ended on Thursday, as California governor Jerry Brown announced his signing of Assembly Bill 1844 and Senate Bill 1349. The two laws passed in the state Senate last month.

AB-1844 prevents employers from asking workers for social media usernames or passwords, or logging into social media in their presence. It also protects workers from employer retaliation in the case they fail to comply with these kinds of demands. And university students and employees are gaining new protections as well. SB-13 …

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The movement to stop employers from requiring applicants to give up Facebook or other social network passwords in order to conduct background checks is gaining momentum. The California State Assembly recently passed AB 1844, which would "prohibit an employer from requiring an employee or prospective employee to disclose a user name or account password to access social media." It was supported unanimously with a vote of 73 to 0 and now passes to the State Senate

The bill, which was introduced in late February, is one of several nationwide. In April, Maryland became the first state to prohibit the practice. A federal amendment was shot down, …

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Several reports surfaced recently about employers asking job applicants for passwords to Facebook and other social networks - Facebook quickly came out against this practice, and several states started drafting bills to prevent this sort of behavior. Now, Maryland has become the first state to pass a law banning employers from asking for social media passwords. The bill unanomously passed in the Senate last week and by a vote of 128-10 in the House; it now awaits signature by Maryland governor Martin O'Malley. While the Senate and House bills were voted on last week, they needed to be reconciled by the end of yesterday's legislative sessions …

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An amendment to the FCC Process Reform Act seeking to bolster the agency's ability to protect workers' Facebook logins from nosy employers was shot down earlier this week. However, Congress's failure to pass the amendment isn't really a setback for online privacy - the Democrat-controlled Senate has expressed little interest in considering the Act, and the Obama administration has voiced its intention to veto it, meaning the amendment was a lost cause anyway. The addition was proposed by Democratic Congressman Ed Perlmutter, who argued that, armed with their employees' logins "employers essentially can act as imposters and assume the identit …

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A couple days after the Associated Press investigated employers asking job seekers for Facebook passwords in order to perform background checks, the social networking company has responded in a blog post. Facebook first and foremost reiterates its motto that "you should never have to share your password." The company also reserves the right to terminate your account if you solicit passwords from others (as stated in its Statement of Rights and Responsibilities), and says that you expose yourself to "legal liability" by doing so. Facebook elaborated:

"If an employer sees on Facebook that someone is a member of a protected group (e.g. over a …

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If the thought of being asked by a prospective employer for your Facebook and Twitter login credentials makes you uneasy, you're not alone. Senator Richard Blumenthal has announced that he's working on a new bill that would prohibit the requests, pointing to the ban on workplace polygraphs as justification for outlawing the practice. The bill would also be structured to take the needs of existing employees into account, although Blumenthal says he's still examining the details.

Speaking to Politico, the senator described the requests as an "unreasonable invasion of privacy for people seeking work," adding that the bill would be ready "in th …

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Job seekers are routinely advised to scrub their social media pages of photos and text that might present them in an unprofessional light, or to limit access to friends and family only. This well-intentioned advice, however, may have simply prompted employers to turn to more invasive methods. The Associated Press has investigated several places, mostly US public agencies like police or emergency dispatch departments, that require applicants to either hand over their Facebook or other social media passwords or log in and let employers look through private photos or wall posts.

Police department spokespeople said they usually looked for evide …

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