German Law Would Prohibit Employers From Looking at Private Facebook Pages

Looking for a way to call the boss rude names and not get caught?

If you live in Germany and new legislation passes, all you have to do is put your Facebook settings on private and the boss wouldn’t be able to look at your profile.

The draft law, presented by Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere today, would make it illegal for prospective employers to snoop on private Internet postings, the Associated Press reports.

Anything posted on a public Facebook or other Internet page would be fair game, the AP says. But an employer couldn’t “friend” someone in order to peek at, say, photos from that keg party in college.

Yes, Facebook friend requests have to be accepted before private pages can be viewed. However, de Maiziere told the AP that many users are not careful about which requests they accept.

However, there are still a few portions of the law that would need to be ironed out before it comes to a vote.

“If an employer turns down an application with another reasoning it might be difficult to prove” that the negative answer was based on the Facebook postings, de Maiziere said.

A rejected job applicant who proves he or she was turned down based of violation of the new law could take the company to court and claim damages, he said.

The new law will also prevent clandestine video surveillance in the workplace, particularly in private spaces like lavatories or locker rooms, de Maiziere said. An employer ignoring the new rule could be charged fines of about $379,000.

However, cameras will be allowed in public spaces like supermarkets and some factories or warehouses, if employees know about them, he said.

“Overall, the new rules passed by the Cabinet keep a good balance between employees’ interests on the one hand and companies’ interests on the other,” de Maiziere said.

Germany’s data protection watchdog, Peter Schaar, applauded the government’s effort, calling it long overdue. It is “a substantial improvement on the status quo in dealing with employees’ data,” he said.