These States Protect Employees’ Right to Password Privacy

You go home, you remove your shoes, pour a glass of wine, and log on to social media sites to catch up with the latest news from your friends and to look at cat pictures. The next morning, your boss wants your social media passwords.

(Photo Credit: marc falardeau/Flickr)

Some employers argue that they need employee passwords for social media sites to protect their own private information, such as trade secrets. Whose privacy is worth protecting is currently left up for each of the states to decide. Some states have enacted legislation to protect workers’ (and sometimes students’) social media login information.

2012

In the year 2012, six of the 50 states enacted legislation to protect workers’ rights to not be required to divulge their social meda passwords. California, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, and New Jersey all passed laws prohibiting employers from requiring access to social networks.

California and Delaware also have legislation signed by their governors prohibiting private and public academic institutions from requesting or requiring student and student applicant social media login information. California includes the language “student group”; for example, the Catholic Student Union at X University in California should not be asked for their group’s Facebook page login information.

2013

Nine more states joined the party and enacted legislation to protect worker (and sometimes student) rights in 2013: Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, and Washington.

Failed

Some states considered laws to protect employee online privacy, but didn’t pass the legislation. If you consider your free time your own, and you like to spend your free time on social media, you may wish to consider not living in the following states: Arizona, Connecticut, Louisiana, Maryland, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Texas, and West Virginia.

In Mississippi, the potential legislation died in committee. It never got to a vote.

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