Article
Invisible discrimination:
Employers, social media
sites and passwords
in the U.S.
Richard L Pate
Abstract
With the advent and popularity of social networking sites, the boundaries of the rela-
tionship between the employer and employee/prospective employee have stretched well
beyond the workplace and working hours. Predictably, this relationship expansion has
led to uncharted adversarial scenarios between the respective parties. Unfortunately, in
this new, vibrant cyber world, employment law is struggling for deference and attention.
Notwithstanding this ostensible indifference, each phase of the relationship is heavily
impacted by social network media. Applicant recruitment, information gathering and
applicant selection stand to be impacted by the social network communications made by
employees or prospective employees. This article examines whether present and pro-
posed law protects job applicants from potential, unlawful discrimination resulting from
the employer’s use of social media in its applicant recruitment, information-gathering and
applicant selection processes.
Keywords
Applicant, discrimination, employment law, Facebook, password, social media sites
Introduction
With the advent and popularity of social network sites, the boundaries of the relationship
between the employer and employee/prospective employee have stretched well beyond
John F Welch College of Business, Sacred Heart University, Fairfield, CT, USA
Corresponding author:
Richard L Pate, John F Welch College of Business, Sacred Heart University, 5151 Park Avenue,
Fairfield, CT 06825-1000, USA.
Email: pater@Sacredheart.edu
International Journalof
Discrimination and theLaw
12(3) 133–146
ªThe Author(s) 2012
Reprints and permission:
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DOI: 10.1177/1358229112470300
jdi.sagepub.com
