Bill would make it illegal for employers to ask for social media passwords

MADISON (WITI) -- State lawmakers are considering a bill that would keep nosy bosses out of your personal business. Currently, in the state of Wisconsin, your bosses can force you to give them passwords to social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. A proposal at the state Capitol would prevent them from prying into your personal accounts.

"It's kind of like the Wild West right now. There's no laws of prohibitions, and ultimately what this bill will do is protect people's expectations of privacy, but it also provides parameters for businesses and educational institutions to know what they can and can't ask from people," Rep. Melissa Sargent (D - Madison) said.

Senate bill 223 would make it illegal for your employer to require you to hand over personal passwords to social media sites.

The bill was introduced at the Senate Committee on Judiciary and Labor.

"Haven't been a lot of problems, reported problems, but it does surprise me that apparently in this state, you could ask an employee to turn over that sort of information. It shouldn't be required. I suppose the one employer who would be the biggest problem would be the government itself," Sen. Glenn Grothman (R - West Bend) said.

There is bipartisan support for the bill, and both the ACLU and the Wisconsin business community are supporting it, but the bill would also apply to schools. The Association of School Boards has raised concerns.

"In the context of investigating student misconduct or even staff misconduct, that the bill might have the unintended consequence of hampering investigations or causing schools to be relying on less than the best evidence, in those cases which would be more circumstantial evidence, witness testimony, rather than the actual internet content," Dan Rossmiller with the Wisconsin Association of School Boards said.

The bill would still allow employers to set limits on what sites can be viewed on company time and equipment.

"You can still have your rules, your employee handbook what they can and can't be doing when they're working for you," Rep. Sargent said.

The bill could come up for a vote within the next month.