Education Law

The brave new world of social media policies

BoardBuzz came across this story recently and was left thinking that policies on social media require some real thought. Basically the city government of Bozeman, Montana made headlines last week when their rather curious method of background checks was widely reported.

The crux: the city requested that job applicants hand over logins to sites like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and more. An expected burst of outrage was then heard across the internet. Bozeman has since rescinded the practice and apologized.

Clearly the policy didn’t pass the smell test–even if the only people to access an applicants accounts were HR employees. The mere act of accessing another user’s account or providing another with access to your account violates the Terms of Service for most of the websites in question.

Just how should private information like this be handled in hiring practices? What should students especially know about posting information to sites like Facebook? It’s a tricky subject as even the Associated Press, whose social media policy raised some concern, can attest.

It’s important to find a middle ground that balances privacy rights with an employer’s concerns. Moreover, how should schools handle teacher and student social networking? What are the best practices out there, and how should school administrators handle what appears to be a slippery slope? Let us know what you think. BoardBuzz has a feeling that we’ll revisit this topic quite soon. And we hope to have some answers for you.

Full post as published by BoardBuzz: NSBA's Daily Weblog on June 24, 2009 (boomark / email).