By: Pat Murphy, BridgeTower Media Newswires//August 15, 2012//
By: Pat Murphy, BridgeTower Media Newswires//August 15, 2012//
Illinois has become the second state to prohibit employers from demanding social media passwords from employees and job applicants.
Gov. Pat Quinn earlier this month signed into law House Bill 3782, which makes it unlawful for an “employer to request or require any employee or prospective employee to provide any password or other related account information in order to gain access to the employee’s or prospective employee’s account or profile on a social networking website.”
The new law further prohibits employers from demanding access “in any manner” to a worker’s social media accounts.
“Members of the workforce should not be punished for information their employers don’t legally have the right to have,” Quinn said in a statement.
The governor signed the measure on Aug. 1, after it passed both houses of the Illinois General Assembly in May. Maryland became the first state to enact such a measure earlier this spring.
While the new Illinois law seeks to protect employee privacy, it also explicitly preserves the right of employers to promulgate and enforce workplace computer policies restricting Internet use. In addition, the law’s definition of social networking sites does not include e-mail, and the law does not prevent employers from obtaining employee information in the public domain. The measure goes into effect Jan. 1.
Last month, Delaware enacted a law that prohibits public and private academic institutions from requiring students and applicants to disclose social media password or account information. The Delaware law is reportedly the first of its kind in the country.