Should you give your passwords to your boss?

No.

Well, that ends this post.

Ok, let me flesh this out a bit more for you.

This week, the British Columbia New Democratic Party (BC NDP) asked the candidates running in their April Leadership Race to turn over all passwords to the Party so they can vet the candidates for embarrassing photos, posts, etc. Back in the 2009 BC Election, NDP Candidate Ray Lam had to withdraw from the race after racy photos of him (including the one to the left) on his Facebook account were made public.  As such, NDP is trying to prevent this from happening again.

Forget for a moment that such a request may be against the BC Privacy Laws and even a higher authority – Twitter Terms of Service. Asking for the password to social media accounts does not address the concern. Rather, this request continues to highlight that the NDP did not understand social media in the 2009 Election and two years later, continue to be baffled by the Interweb.

I certainly agree that becoming a candidate for a Party is a choice, in fact, even a privilege to be accepted. As such, certain vetting such as criminal record, banking, taxes, group affiliations, etc are required. That said, a financial check does not include giving up the PIN numbers for your bank cards.

So, how should political parties and other such groups vet / review someone’s social media presence?

Here’s how in 6 steps:

1.  Have person disclose ALL social networks / online worlds where they interact or have interacted. Sure the popular ones like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Youtube and their personal website but also Flickr, older social networks they may have forgotten (e.g, Friendster, Classmates); dating sites (Plenty of Fish, Match.com, eHarmony); interactive worlds (Second Life, Playstation Network); “humour sites” (Urban Dictionary) and even their top 10 favourite bulletin boards where they chat, troll or even create flamewars. Use Wikipedia to look those last terms up. Oh yeah, check Wikipedia profiles too for the person you are investigating.

2.  Have person grant you access as a “friend”, “follower”, “user”, etc at the highest public settings possible. This will allow you to see everything that the public can see.

3.  Now actually view, search, listen, read, all the online “stuff” you can see. BTW – this will take anywhere from 0 seconds to a few weeks.

4. Google. Yes, Google. This will give you some basic access to old UserNet, news articles, web posts, etc. on the person you are researching.

5. List all the “offending” information, photos, videos, etc. ask the candidate to remove. As well, figure out how you will explain to the public why the midget, flock of sheep and leather gear are in the same photo as your guy.

6. If he / she will not remove the content, then decide if the candidacy will continue. Please let the press know as this will give me more air time to comment on the situation.

So simple. I do wonder if candidates in the old days had to give up their kaleidoscope and grant access to their collections of etchings? Must research.

I also wonder what sort of heart attack I would give to a vetting committee. Again, must research.

UPDATE:

Audio of me being interviewed by Sean Leslie from CKNW.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.