Following a flurry of negative media attention, the City of Bozeman, Mont. has stopped asking job candidates for web site user names and passwords.
According to the press release 
:
Effective at 12:00 p.m. today, Friday June 19, 2009, the City of Bozeman permanently ceased the practice of requesting candidates selected for City positions under a provisional job offer to provide user names and passwords for the candidate’s internet sites.
They said in a memo to the mayor and city commission that it was an honest mistake and that they believed it was consistent with their core values. I believe them. And I give them some credit for realizing the severity of the situation they created for themselves and acting quickly to fix it.
But they still don’t get it. City Manager Chris Kukulski made a point that only certain staff had access. They still don’t appear to understand the risks associated with asking for that information, using it or securing it. Which brings me to…
After reading the press release and the memo I was also concerned that they were still not addressing how the information they already have on hand is stored and secured, but that concern is addressed in the video of the press conference (WMV) with City Manager Chris Kukulski.
“Yes, that is protected, confidential information and it is held in the same cabinet, in the same information where all other protected human resource or personnel items are.”
The information is safe in the cabinet. I guess I’m relieved. But I hope it’s a sturdy cabinet.
What’s not clear to me is exactly what they meant by “Internet sites,” and what exactly they intended to do with the access they wanted to be granted. Did they mean social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook? Or actual Web sites that people had created on their own?
The story is still very scary!
Here’s what they ask on the form: “Please list any and all, current personal or business websites, web pages or memberships on any Internet-based chat rooms, social clubs or forums, to include, but not limited to: Facebook, Google, Yahoo, YouTube.com, MySpace, etc.”
Any and all, business or personal. That’s nuts.
More comments in my previous post.
You have to wonder who came up with the idea in the first place, and what kind of lawyer vetted it as even being legal. Yikes! I reiterate that this is very scary.