Sen. Klobuchar Intros Password Protection Bill

Some Democratic senators have gotten together to try and prevent future employers from being able to get undue access to past online conduct from online users.

On Wednesday, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) introduced the Password Protection Act, along with Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), which is intended to "prohibit employers from coercing job applicants or current employees to provide access to their private online systems." That inclucdes Facebook, e-mail and online storage.

The bill follows reports some employers were asking for Facebook passwords from prospective employees.

During a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on privacy Wednesday, Federal Trade commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz told committee member Klobuchar that the FTC also had concerns about employers asking for Facebook passwords, and had "conveyed" those concerns to Facebook.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.