The Washington State Senate unanimously approved amendments to the social networking legislation.  The proposed amendments would prohibit employers from coercing or requesting that employees provide them with login information for personal social networking sites.

The amendment also prohibits employers from requiring employees to “add” employers to their list of contacts of their personal social networking sites.

In addition, the amendment grants the employee or a prospective employee the opportunity to sue the employer if the employer violates the new law.  There is a statutory fine of $500 plus attorney fees.

The proposed law and penalties reflect a need to protect the privacy of an employee.  Of course, if the employee grants access and/or the employee’s information is readily available over the internet, then one might argue that the rules here would not apply.  There are exemptions to the law which would allow an employer to seek information from an employee’s private social networking site as well.  As an employee, one should be prudent about what they put on a social networking site such as Facebook and Twitter.  Also, check the privacy settings on those sites to ensure that only those that you want to see your information are allowed to see it.

Cruz Law, PLLC would be happy to answer any inquiries about the new social media law.

The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) was blocked by members of the U.S. House of Representatives.  CISPA would have banned employers from asking for social media passwords of its employees.

The bill would help the government react to cybersecurity threats by making it easier to share information between itself and private company.  Some argue that it’s a major invasion of privacy as it would be easy for companies to hand over users’ private information to the government.  More background on CISPA can be found with this excellent post on PC Mag.

The Washington state legislature currently has SB 5211 which proposes employer social media password legislation.  There is criticism about whether this legislation is necessary.  But, the law, if passed, would prevent employers from obtaining social media passwords from its employees.  It also would allow a statutory cause of action with a penalty of $500 to a prevailing employee or prospective employee in addition to “any award of actual damages” plus reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs.  Additions to the state law include limited reasons for an employer to access a personal account or profile.

The bill is currently matriculating its way through the state House.