Password Protection Bill By Perlmutter Introduced In Senate

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico Congressman Martin Heinrich is pushing legislation that would prohibit employers from forcing current or prospective employees to share passwords to their private accounts on sites like Facebook.

The Password Protection Act of 2012 was introduced Wednesday by Heinrich and fellow Democrat Ed Perlmutter of Colorado. A similar measure was introduced in the Senate.

Heinrich says that "employers demanding Facebook passwords or confidential information on other social networks is an egregious privacy violation and should be against the law." He notes that personal information like race, religion, age and sexual orientation is often accessible on social networking profiles.

The congressmen say the bill preserves employers' rights to set policies for how work computers are used.

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