Australia to ban employers from accessing job seekers‘ Facebook accounts

Under a potential change to Australia's national privacy laws, bosses are likely to be banned from demanding access to job seekers' Facebook or other social media pages or accounts.

The Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) said that the use of social media accounts to assess candidates for work, education and other opportunities was an area of growing concern.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the commission is considering whether new laws are needed to allow people to sue for serious breaches of privacy.

The report said that it is deemed illegal to ask job seekers for social media passwords in 13 US states, including California and New Jersey, and other states are following suit.

The ALRC said that it may be appropriate to include such conduct as an example of a serious invasion of privacy for the purpose of a statutory cause of action or to amend laws dealing with workplace surveillance to prohibit such conduct.

The commission will release draft recommendations in late February and a final report at the end of June next year, the report added.