Great post, this is a really great and well written letter. It encapsulates the dangers of divulging too much of your personal life on line but it also divulges the legal dilemma that accessing that information poses to a hiring organization. But what happens when they do it without letting you know? They can easily just google most peoples names and find out a treasure trove of information. There's no need to pressure someone to relinquish a password these days. It's all there, in the public.. dirty undies and all. Also, the Nixon resignation letter in the middle of the post inspired this: http://hubski.com/pub?id=24377 Thanks.
I don't understand how employers think that a policy that doesn't respect their workers is advantageous, or even sustainable. If my employer doesn't respect me, I won't give them more than the minimum, and I will jump ship once I am able. Peering into an employee's private life is extremely offensive at the very least. I am sure it will be illegal in time. It's not very difficult to think of ways that employers can get burned by this behavior.