For the geographically challenged, or (in the cast of Coasties) purposefully obtuse and arrogant, Bozeman isn’t a new computer virus, or a demon summoned from the 77th layer of the Abyss by Bill Gates. It’s a city in Montana, actually one of the largest in the state. Montana is normally a champion for personal liberties, but in a bizarre turn of events the city of Bozeman is asking all applicants for city jobs to turn over not just those sites on the internet for which they have accounts, but also the user names and passwords that go along with them.
City attorney Greg Sullivan had this to say about the decision:
“So, we have positions ranging from fire and police, which require people of high integrity for those positions, all the way down to the lifeguards and the folks that work in city hall here. So we do those types of investigations to make sure the people that we hire have the highest moral character and are a good fit for the City,”
While one can’t fault him for his motives, it certainly is important for the city to have a good reputation and it is reasonable for them to want folks of good repute representing them, they’re going to frightening and drastic measures to do so. In essence asking applicants to turn over all shreds of privacy to the city, allowing people from the city to read their e-mail, private sections of facebook, and even access their bank accounts. Now maybe my situation has been unique, but I’ve never had a potential employer ask for permission to read my mail or tap my phone before hiring me. If they did, I’d tell them to take a hike. That kind of invasion of privacy is unheard of, and is unconscionable.
The worst thing is, I don’t know which I find more absurd and frightening, that a US city would ask this of potential employees, or the fact that so far not a single employee has withdrawn their application in protest when asked to tender their accounts and passwords.
-Angry Midwesterner
June 18, 2009 at 9:20 pm
I just noticed you have an automatically generated connection (what wonder of WordPress did you use to do this?) to my blog post on the same subject so thought I ought to read yours!
It’s absolutely terrifying to think they can actually get away with such a request, isn’t it? It makes me quite squeamish especially when you point out that there has not been a single withdrawal of application to speak of.
It is a sad, sad world we live in when people give up their privacy so freely because they think they must. I think the actions of city officials in this case are bordering on dictatorship.
And the fact is, once these logins and passwords are made available to one individual in a city department, who is to say everyone else in the department is honest and no one will try to steal your information for malicious purposes?
What is wrong with the world today? It’s essentially the equivalent of an employer asking for copies of all personal diaries, journals, little black book, etc. Now that obviously is not a reasonable request, so what makes them think THIS is, eh?
June 19, 2009 at 10:28 am
The apparently undereducated Greg Sullivan has only worked for the city 3 months…
BTW,
Here’s contact infor for his bosses….
Mayor Kaaren Jacobson
587-5968
kjacobson@bozeman.net
Deputy Mayor/Commissioner Jeff Krauss
582-2341
jkrauss@bozeman.net
Commissioner Jeff Rupp
586-1380
jrupp@bozeman.net
Commissioner Sean Becker
581-7571
sbecker@bozeman.net
Commissioner Eric Bryson
582-2347
ebryson@bozeman.net
To email the City Commission as a group, please send your email to agenda@bozeman.net, and the City Clerk’s Office will forward your email to the Commission.
June 20, 2009 at 1:32 pm
And having been made the laughing stock of the planet, they’ve apparently dropped the requirement now.
June 21, 2009 at 1:56 pm
I would love to know what made them think it was a good idea in the first place… they really should’ve seen the media-blitz coming. Then again… maybe that’s what they were looking for…