Germany to Pass Privacy Law to Limit the use of Facebook when Hiring - Will Ireland Follow?
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The German Government has presented a draft law governing workplace privacy. The bill includes a proposal which restricts prospective employers from viewing Facebook profiles of potential candidates and would make it illegal for them to become a Facebook friend with an applicant in order to view their private postings.
Facebook has about 10 million users in Germany and there are currently no rules in place that regulate the use by companies of Facebook data.
Under the bill, employers would still be permitted to conduct a search for publicly accessible information about prospective employees on the internet. They would also be entitled to access information on job networking sites (as opposed to purely social networking sites) such as LinkedIn.
The German Interior Minister acknowledged that some of the new regulations might be complicated to enact and stated that if an employer turns down an application from a potential employee it might be difficult to prove that the reason for doing so was on foot of the content of Facebook postings.
The penalties proposed under the bill are substantial: A rejected job applicant who proves they have been rejected for a position based on violation of the new law could take a company to court claiming damages and fines of up to €300,000 could be imposed on employers that become friends with prospective employees in order to glean personal information from their postings.
Peter Schaar, the German Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information, endorsed the proposal stating it was “a substantial improvement on the status quo in dealing with employees’ data”. That may be the case, however it is difficult to see how this new law will be enforced.
The bill will go to the German Parliament to be debated when we will see how it develops. There are no similar proposals in Ireland but it is interesting to see how other EU countries are tackling this issue - if it succeeds there will no doubt be a political will for similar protections in Ireland.
