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Comment by fra | Hacker News Reader

Are you seriously suggesting Facebook use it's employee's private account data as part of hiring & performance management?

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Why would they not? Any other employer is allowed to, so why not Facebook?

Facebook has a different level of access. Seems to me like that would be all kinds of unethical.

And clearly, Facebook would not use personal information for unethical purposes.

Because the liability is not worth it.

> Any other employer is allowed to, so why not Facebook?

No. This is explicitly illegal in some states.

Edit: I just realized you were probably talking about it being explicitly illegal to discriminate based on political affiliation in some states which is true.

Nope. In some states it is illegal for your employer or a potential employer to make decisions based on your social media history.

Even if the employee sends their social media posts directly to the employer or a potential employer and stores them on their systems? I am interested to read the legislation do you know what states?

As of 2013, it was Illinois, California, New Jersey, Michigan, Maryland, and Delaware.

https://www.cnet.com/news/six-states-outlaw-employer-snoopin...

That only bans employers from asking for passwords. Facebook doesn't need to do this because they already have all your data, no passwords needed.

Also I read through the text of those laws and they all specifically say that they are not limiting the employers right to monitor their own systems in any way. So Facebook looking up how their employees use Facebook would be completely fine under those laws.

No, there is a difference between what should do, what they can do and what they are doing. I would interpret the OP as saying they can know, if they wanted to. But that doesn’t really have much to do with Zuckerberg denying knowledge.

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