Would you share your password to get a job or apartment?

Tech experts say traditional passwords are annoying, outmoded and too easily hacked.
Tech experts say traditional passwords are annoying, outmoded and too easily hacked.

For the second year, state Sen. Caleb Rowden, R-Columbia, wants lawmakers to prohibit employers, educational institutions and landlords from requiring, requesting or coercing employees, applicants or students to disclose a user name or account password.

The bill also would prohibit the employers, landlords or educational institutions from requiring they be added to a person's list of contacts, or from punishing someone who refuses to provide the information.

"What we're trying to avoid is a scenario where an employee, educational institution or landlord could say, 'If you don't give me the password to your account, we're going to take some action (such as) not giving you the job, the house (or whatever),'" Rowden told the Senate's General Laws Committee Wednesday.

"It's really meant to be just an updating of ongoing laws, to make sure that folks who are applying for certain things have some freedom in the process, to make sure that they aren't bullied in a way."

Last year, the measure was debated in the Senate, but wasn't passed.

This year's bill covers people 18 and older, while last year's version also included younger students.

Committee Chairman Bob Onder, R-Lake St. Louis, liked that change.

"I think the job of our schools, our churches and so on - and parents, first and foremost - is to keep kids safe," Onder said. "And who do we keep our kids safe from? Pornographers, human traffickers, drug dealers and, probably most of all, from each other.

"So, if drug sales or sexting is going across a school computer, the school has an interest (and) a responsibility to do something about it."

Lobbyist Scott Kimble, representing the Missouri School Administrators Coalition, also thanked Rowden for "scaling back" the age limits from last year's bill.

"We absolutely agree with the underlying intent of the bill," Kimble testified. "We don't want teachers or administrators to be requiring students or employees, in any way, to be providing their user names or password information."

He suggested the language be modified so school officials who "found something like nude photos or what have you that a student was sharing, over a Wi-Fi or one of our servers" would be able to provide information that could be used in a future court case.

Sarah Baker, the ACLU of Missouri's legislative and policy director, told the committee the proposal is "the 21st century equivalent of saying someone cannot go through your diaries (and) your mail."

She said Missouri has "made a really conscious effort to make sure that the (U.S. Constitution's) Fourth Amendment protections against illegal search and seizure applies to electronic communications, (and) this bill honors that intent."

Baker also said Rowden's bill keeps First Amendment protections intact.

"We're allowing people to speak freely, without the implication that their private beliefs will affect them in their employment applications, for housing or in an educational institution," she explained.

Baker noted the bill still allows employers, schools or landlords some access "for specific instances - so, if an individual saw illegal activity and there was a picture of that, (the bill) would allow individuals to access that specific instance, but it wouldn't allow a log-in to your whole Facebook profile."

She said allowing "blanket access" would allow people to know personal information that someone might not want to publicize.

"It could tell them where you go to church, what your political views are (or) if you're pregnant," Baker said. "We want to make sure that what is meant to be private stays private."

Baker reported other states are considering similar proposals.

Rowden said he's sponsoring the bill because "there have been instances - mostly in other states - where this has happened, (especially) in the area of the landlord-tenant agreement."

Rowden also said some college professors around the country "have tried to push some of that on students."

He doesn't want to prohibit anyone voluntarily sharing the information, but he doesn't want it to be forced.