The city government in Bozeman, Montana, isn’t content to cyberstalk its potential employees—they’re now asking applicants for their login information for any social networking sites. –John Timmer, City to job applicants: Facebook, MySpace log-ins please, Ars Technica, 2009-06-18

According to the article, a waiver form asks “Please list any and all, current personal or business websites, web pages or memberships on any Internet-based chat rooms, social clubs or forums, to include, but not limited to: Facebook, Google, Yahoo, YouTube.com, MySpace, etc.” … and asks for username and passwords for each one.

Here, let me give you my car and house keys while we’re at it — I don’t want to make things difficult for you. Arrrgh.

The city of Bozeman, Montana has decided to back off on its requirement that job applicants hand over their logins and passwords for every social network they belong to. –Jacqui Cheng, Bozeman apologizes, backs down over Facebook login request, Ars Technica, 2009-06-23

Merely because upon reflection they decided they were wrong. I’m sure the “bad press” and “widespread criticism” had nothing to do with it. Idiots.