So I hear Michigan has a new law that says employers are not allowed to ask employees for their facebook passwords. Maybe I’m just out of the loop, but I can’t think of a legitimate context in which an employer could claim it was appropriate to ask an employee, or a potential employee, to give up their password to any email or personal social network account. *

Although employees have more protections, the new law doesn’t prevent employers from gaining access to any electronic devices they provide such as an iPad, laptop or cellphone. Which is why employers should have a clear policy so employees know what to expect when they use company-owned technology.

Employers can still restrict and prohibit access to certain websites on electronic devices if they pay for them in whole or part.

I mean, come on guys.  That’s pretty entry-level stuff.  Employees don’t have an expectation of privacy covering activity on work computers.  And if you don’t have a policy prohibiting pr0n at work or on company devices, maybe that’s something you should think about.  And if you have managers who claim the need to snoop through your employees’ social media use to decide whether or not they can be trusted with a company cell phone, it seems like your organization might have larger problems to address.
I guess I could understand exceptions for government security clearances or FBI background checks.  But those entities can just go to FB (and Google and Yahoo and your cell phone provider) and obtain your data without permission anyway.  So they don’t need a password to get the goods.  And all this really means is that for everyone else (as I have discussed previously here and here) if you really need to know, you should outsource it.

*yes yes I understand that some people are professional in-house paid marketeers and the company wants access to accounts registered in those people’s personal names.  But that’s not a “personal” account in the sense I mean to use it here.