Wisconsin to Adopt Social Media Privacy Law

New legislation should shield Wisconsin job seekers from prospective employers who want access to their private social media accounts.

Authored by Rep Melissa Sargent (D-Madison), the bill prohibits employers, schools and landlords from requesting the passwords for applicant, student or potential tenants’ Facebook and other social media pages. The legislation was introduced in 2013, but was just passed by both the Wisconsin Assembly and Senate. Gov Scott Walker (R-WI) is expected to sign the bill into law later in 2014. Once law, the bill will protect people from being penalized or discriminated against by refusing to turn over personal Internet and social media account information. The legislation does not, however, prevent an employer from observing or acting on a person’s publicly-available social media data. Wisconsin would be one of several states to adopt this kind of legislation. Washington set social media privacy policy in early 2013, while a New Jersey bill on social media protection went into effect December 2013.