California legislature approves bill to prohibit employers from asking for applicants' social media passwords

Following up on a story we covered earlier, the California Senate has now approved a bill that will prohibit employers from asking for social media passwords from job applicants. The restriction also applies to public and private colleges and universities in California in their  capacity as both employers and educators. The BNA Electronic Commerce & Law Report (subscription required) has more details.

The second of two bills to restrict employers from requiring employees or job applicants to disclose social media usernames and passwords passed its house of origin May 25 with a 28-5 vote on the Senate floor.

S.B. 1349 by Sen. Leland Yee (D) now moves to the Assembly for consideration. It won passage two weeks after a similar bill, A.B. 1844 by Assemblywoman Nora Campos (D) passed the Assembly 73-0.

Both bills can be taken up in opposite houses in June.

The Senate bill goes beyond the Assembly version, applying to public and private colleges and universities as well as employers. The bill also bans employers and school officials from forcing covered individuals to provide access to content from social media accounts, in the wake of reports of demands that individuals print out pages or log on in the presence of the employer or school official.

Yee said he authored the bill in response to a growing number of businesses, public agencies, and colleges asking job seekers, workers, and students for their Facebook and Twitter account information.

You can access S.B. 1349 by clicking here and SB1349 can be found here.

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