The Senator Richard Blumenthal and Charles Schumer are asking that a federal investigation be made for the new practices that are being used for the hiring process. Some companies are actually demanding that jobseekers, the individuals applying to work for the company, provide the company with their Facebook login information as well as their e-mail accounts, which is basically unlawful, to say the least.

Recent reports that have been made by people applying for position with different companies in the New York area and Seattle, Washington area have been being quite demanding about getting job applicants to hand over their Facebook login credentials and passwords for their e-mail accounts. The unemployment rate in the United States is still relatively high after the recession, at about 8 percent, and it is believe that requesting such information could be quite dangerous.

Two separate senators are trying to figure out whether or not these practices are illegal, as it does sound ridiculous to request such private information from a job applicant. Schumer says that this is a time in which the vast majority of people have plenty of personal information available online and that these individuals should be able to set up specific preferences when it comes to their privacy, deciding what types of information they want public and what types of information they want to keep private. Schumer also believe that it is important for jobseekers because they should be able to keep some of their personal life private, without the worry of potential employers judging them by what they do when they are not in work.

Blumenthal believes that this is unlawful discrimination and wants a ban to be placed immediately. Blumenthal believes that asking for such information is a complete lack of privacy and is definitely inappropriate, especially for professional companies. Blumenthal admits that there are some exceptions but says that the majority of employers do not need to receive access to different information that is protected by a password, such as e-mail addresses and social networking pages.

Blumenthal believes that an investigation being held by the Department of Justice and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission will ultimately help to put a ban on this invasion of privacy and create stronger laws against it, as a way of protecting potential employers and jobseekers. Background checks are, of course, appropriate but an invasion of privacy definitely is not. And, it has become quite controversial, especially since this is a practice that more and more companies seem to have adapted in recent months and years. Companies that do this could end up being sued by jobseekers on terms of discrimination which is yet another reason why it needs to come to an end.