Password rule for job applicants gets backspaced

People applying for jobs with Bozeman, Mont., no longer have to provide their Internet user names and passwords when seeking employment with the city.

Faced with a major outcry, the city has formally eliminated a hiring policy that had asked applicants to provide their user names and passwords for personal and business Web sites including Facebook, Google, Yahoo!, YouTube and MySpace, according to news reports.

Although the policy reportedly had been in place for several years, it came to light recently when a local TV station learned about it from an anonymous viewer, according to the reports.

A city commissioner described the policy as an “egregious violation of privacy,” according to the Billings Gazette.

City Manager Chris Kukulski put out a four-page memorandum last week saying he had decided to stop seeking the information for all positions and that no one was ever denied a job for failing to disclose user names and passwords on password-protected Internet sites.

“This was an honest mistake. Human resources, our police and fire departments were doing something they believed was consistent with our core values,” Mr. Kukulski said in the memo. “This practice is no longer being employed.”

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