Although there have been some reports of employers asking for Facebook and other social networking information — usernames and passwords — the prying eyes of social networking monitoring seems to be much higher among universities.
The one employer who asked for social network usernames reported by the Red Tape Chronicles was for a clerical job at a police department, and although I would agree we should be more cautious about police department hires, asking for passwords to personal accounts seems over the line.
As for the universities, they’ve taken a little different of an approach, as their monitoring seems to lean more towards the student athletes.
Here’s how they do it:
“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,” it reads. “The athletics department also reserves the right to have other staff members monitor athletes’ posts.”
Although these students aren’t handing over passwords, they are required to have an official “friend” who can view “friends-only” status updates, posts, etc …
Most of these schools justify it by saying they are protecting their reputation, what do you think?
What about your local church, mega church or multi-million dollar ministry?
Have you heard or experienced this type of social media policy?
Online Life / Offline Life
It would seem as though these institutions are trying to get a leg-up on PR nightmares. Social media activity didn’t exist ten years ago, so how was character determined, then?
I do believe your online and offline life shouldn’t be too far apart and that solid character lends to a “nothing to hide” kind of attitude, but that doesn’t mean I should give up my password.
What do you think about this?
If your church doesn’t have a social media policy (one that doesn’t ask for someones password), consider putting one together. Here’s a great place to start.
[Image via Nathan O’Nions]
DarinGraham says
I just wrote about how what we do on social media is worship. Social media is no longer a tool that we use to enhance our lives, it’s actually now an extension of ourselves. With that, we have to be sure that what we’re doing online reflects the character that we want people to see. You can read that post here: http://wp.me/pJW2P-51
I sources some infographics from churchmag and made sure to give credit where credit was due.
Eric Dye says
Great stuff, thanks for sharing!
Levi says
Unfortunately, with the way the economy is and will get employers will ask for anything and most of them will get it. But regarding web 2.0 identification, user names, and passwords I would have to say that I never use real name info on my facebook profile, hence I did foresee employers doing exactly what you have reported here. So tell all of your friends on face book your other fictitious name that you will go on from now on and delete your profile with your real name and when your employer asks tell them to go fish! LOL! back at monitoring…
Eric Dye says
True story.