Employers Seeking Social Media Passwords

Why in the world would an employer need the passwords of employees to their social networking sites you ask? More often than not, it would be in response to a lawsuit or even a commercial dispute with a supplier. So maybe you are still asking, how are these passwords for social networking sites even relevant in that situation?

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“Cernam, a company that specializes in digital investigations, is looking to help employers dive into employees accounts without abusing the privacy of employees,” according to Joe Brockhmeier in his article Forensics and Facebook: How Cernam Plans to Collect Social Network Evidence.

This means that employers would not be given full access to an employee’s social media accounts with free reign to look through all the information available at the click of a button. The process offered by Cernam is called Capture and Preserve. Through this, they are only capturing evidence necessary. It will be an expert user who searches the information available, not an employer of the company in question. The employee even has the option to deny anyone access to their accounts if they do not agree to the terms of the search.

GuardTime, in this situation, validates the information that is found. It can prove the integrity of the information without fear of another individual or third party tampering with the evidence.

Would you ever ask someone for their social media information or allow someone access to your own? Read more about the process that Cernam goes through to gain the information and other stipulations here.