As of New Year’s Day, six states have passed and enacted laws barring employers from requiring employees and potential employees to hand over their Facebook passwords.
California and Illinois are the latest two states to join the chorus, Wired reported Wednesday. Those states’ laws went into effect January 1, 2013.
Michigan and New Jersey’s laws barring the practice were passed in December 2012. Delaware instituted a similar measure in July 2012, and Maryland followed suit in October.
The measures, however, do not prohibit employers from viewing what employees or potential employees publicly post to their social media accounts.
Undesirable Internet search results regarding a person’s name can still be a threat to employment or potential employment for students and job seekers, even if that material is about someone else by the same name.
As a result, some colleges are helping job seeking students put their best foot forward online, reported the Associated Press.