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March 29, 2012

Background investigations of applicants for employment - Cybervetting

Background investigations of applicants for employment - Cybervetting
Source: AELE Law Enforcement Legal Center, http://www.aele.org/, Reproduced with permission. Copyright © 2012 AELE

Recently there have been a number of newspaper stories reporting that prospective employers are asking applicants for employment for their passwords to access their "private sites " on their social media accounts such as Facebook and Twitter in the course of the interview process.

AELE has posted an item on its website entitled Developing a Cybervetting Strategy - IACP & DoD guidance manual.

Focusing on using cybervetting in an employment in law enforcement setting, the posting asks: “May background investigators lawfully require applicants to furnish user IDs and passwords to reveal privacy-protected areas on social media web pages?” 

AELE conclusion: Cybervetting may be used in screening applicants for employment in law enforcement positions and notes that it recently participated in national focus group meetings involving police chiefs, attorneys, psychologists and participants from other disciplines.

A report, Developing a Cybervetting Strategy for Law Enforcement, is posted on the Internet at: http://www.iacpsocialmedia.org/Portals/1/documents/CybervettingReport.pdf 

The report contains material that may be applicable in settings other than those involving the employment of law enforcement personnel.

N.B. AELE describes itself as "an extraordinary and unique resource, with free publications and online back issues since 2000." AELE has a searchable library of more than 32,000 case digests organized into 700 + indexed topics dating back to 1975. AELE states that there are no advertisements, tracking "cookies" or popups on its website. Users do not have to preregister and there is no time limit on research sessions. The contents of its online law library may be copied and pasted, saved or printed (except for commercial purposes) by users. AELE has a free search tool covering its database..


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