Applying for a job with the City of Bozeman? You may be asked to provide more personal information than you expected.
That was the case for one person who applied for employment with the City. The anonymous viewer emailed the news station recently to express concern with a component of the city’s background check policy, which states that to be considered for a job applicants must provide log-in information and passwords for social network sites in which they participate.
Hell no. It took me almost a year to trust my girlfriend enough to give her a key to my apartment, and even now I worry about what will happen if we break up. I’ll have to change the locks!
My SO isn’t very computer savvy, so I’ve learned his password through helpful repetition. He knows mine to log into some websites for info (ConsumerReports, etc). His computer has the printer and my laptop is by the couch, so we’ll occassionally use each others, but it’s with unspoken privacy. We pretend to not know our mate’s password, but we do. As for debit card PINs, that’s come up once or twice at a drivethru ATM when the other is driving, we’ve said the number, but I couldn’t recall his and I doubt he’d remember mine.
Another vote for “asking me for my passwords after we’ve been going out a MONTH is creepy as all hell.” No Fucking Way.
After we’re married? Critical passwords to things she might conceivably need access to, assuming such things are necessary. Which doesn’t include my LJ, my Facebook page, or my SDMB account. Truthfully, my ex got NO passwords out of me and never asked.
On my end, I have no conceivable need for my spouse’s passwords for anything.
You’d be wrong. I work for a brokerage firm and deal with this every day. If the account is in your name only, there are procedures to follow if you’re dead. If you’re just unavailable and he doesn’t have power of attorney on the account, you’re out of luck.
My ex and I didn’t keep passwords from each other. For a while I was keeping a password book* and he had access to it. In fact, he began keeping his passwords in the same book (upside down, working from the back).
After a month? That’s ridiculous. I don’t think there’s a magic number for when you start trusting people with that info, but a month is way too soon for the vast majority of relationships.
*Passwords only, no username or email address info. If it got stolen, it was only half the puzzle. I could remember usernames and email address info easily, but found I needed a book to track a different password for every site.
Thirteen years together and we don’t share passwords. Oh, sure, if I really needed to get into his e-mail or he into mine, we’d give it. We know each other’s PINs. Facebook, LJ? He could not care less about those things if he tried and I really like my LJ, so he doesn’t ever ask, and it’s MY place, I feel.
Anybody who insists on knowing your passwords - after a month no less! - is a total creep.
We knew each others’ PINs for convenience sake. But we only had one joint account, which was a savings one and required both our signatures to withdraw anything. We were together 11 years.
Like most things, it depends. I really think there is no ‘should’ or ‘shouldn’t’ in this case. Nor is it (for me) about privacy or ‘hiding something.’ It’s all about a comfort/trust level.
My SO has my password for my laptop because he’s the computer guy in the house. I have his PIN number for his ATM card because he occasionally asks me to gas his car up if I run it to the store or whatever. That doesn’t mean he’s going to go snooping through my files or that I’m going to bliss out at amazon.com. It’s just expedient for the other person to have that information.
It’s interesting that there’s so much paranoia on both ends of the spectrum about the issue. If a person doesn’t share, they’re hiding something. If a person asks, they’re nosy and a stalker who’s invading your privacy. A simple ‘I’m not comfortable with that yet’ should suffice.
Huh. That’s good to know, thanks. I was more thinking if I were dead, but yeah, it could happen I (or he) was unavailable. We’ve been kind of lax about putting each other on the various financial accounts (I think we have gotten to about half of them), so hopefully this will be a good impetus to do the rest of them.
After a month? Creepy as hell. Just asking for all your passwords at once, or having an exchange? Also creepy as hell. “Hey hon, will you see what’s next on the Netflix queue? My password is blahblah.” or “Can I use your iTunes to download this earworm? What’s your password?” Totally normal. My husband knows my password (yeah, I should have more than one) because if something is glitchy, he has to fix it.
We use the same passwords. It makes it easier if either of us needs to get the other to get into mail or whatever when one of us isn’t here. And neither of us feels the need to hide anything. One of the first and most important stipulations we made to each other was ‘no secrets, ever’
As I said previously, it’s not about trust (or secrecy, as you put it). It’s all about the principle of the thing (good security practices). For me, anyway…YMMV. And obviously does.
It just bugs me a little – at least enough to post again, evidently – that many people’s default assumption is that “not divulging passwords” is equivalent to “keeping secrets”. If my wife requested it, she’d be welcome to browse through my accounts – any time I was present to log in.
And he doesn’t have some of my passwords because a) they are all stored in our computers, and b) he doesn’t bother remembering them, which is why I have the Envelope of Doom. Otherwise he’d be locked out of half our finances if I dropped dead now.
We’d been together 14 years, and this has happened overtime, we didn’t start our relationship by swapping passwords (or anything other than bodily fluids).
If I ever decide to sleep with another guy I’ll make sure not to post about it on my Facebook or The Dope. And more importantly, I’ll break up with my husband prior to this event.