Beis Rivkah High School fines girls $100 for having a Facebook account; plus, employers can demand your Facebook password

Having a Facebook account these days is turning out to be a hassle!

There’s a report of an all girls high school in Brooklyn, Beis Rivkah High School, fining students in the 11th grade $100 if they have a Facebook account! Girls were pulled out of class, and handed slips telling them they had to delete their Facebook accounts right away, AND pay $100. If they didn’t do both things, they would be expelled from school. The fine will be returned at the end of the school year.

Students, who are outraged about the demands in general, claim the school’s administration is being hypocritical because last year the school asked students to create Facebook accounts! That’s right, last year the school was participating in a Kohl’s charity giveaway on Facebook, and the students claim the administration asked the students to sign up for Facebook to vote. The administration says they only asked the students’ parents to create Facebook accounts, but according to their stance, even parents shouldn’t have Facebook accounts.

According to head administrator Rabbi Benzion Stock, it’s “an eternal ban. A ban from whenever it started. It’s not a modest thing for a Jewish girl — or man or woman or student or father to be on. There is a lack of privacy and dignity.”

In other weird Facebook news, it’s a growing practice for employers to ask for your FB username and password during the interview process, or afterwards. It’s already known that people should watch what they publicly post using social media and blogs, even to privacy-protected groups of friends, but this new practice would allow employers to check out even your most private messages! That’s basically like them asking to see all your personal emails.

Even Facebook feels this practice violates their privacy policy, but an amendment banning employers and potential employers from asking for your Facebook username and password was rejected by the U.S. House of Representatives last night. If you’re going in for an interview, maybe it’s best to go ahead and shut down your Facebook account so you don’t have to make that decision in the first place.

Employers aren’t allowed to demand your house keys so they can rifle through your personal belongings, or your personal email password so they can read every email you send. They can’t demand to see all your text messages on your personal phone, and while they usually check your credit score, they can’t demand to see your bank statements so they can scrutinize your every purchase.

Would you give an potential employer, or a current employer your Facebook password if it meant not getting the job, or even being fired if you declined? Do you think this practice is fair, or does it violate basic rights to privacy?