Lawmakers killed a bill this session that would have prohibited employers from requesting or requiring employees and applicants to hand over username and password information for their social media accounts.
Rep. Kaniela Ing (D, Kihei-Wailea-Makena) said he introduced House Bill 713 to update existing laws to fit the 21st century.
"Demanding your Facebook information, your password and username, is akin to requiring someone to open their mail or invading someone’s house and rummaging through their stuff," Ing said earlier this session. "And if those things are unequivocally illegal, then why is it any different to access private info on Facebook or any other social media account?"
Ing said supporters of the bill expected it to fail because it’s a fairly new concept in Hawaii and around the country.
"We were expecting it to take some time to make sure that all parties affected are OK with the language," he said.
Six states have passed laws dealing with social media log-in disclosure — all in 2012 — and an additional eight states last year considered such measures, according to the National Confer- ence of State Legislatures.
The Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii testified throughout the session that it had concerns regarding the bill because while there have been high-profile social media disclosure cases around the country, it does not believe there is a prevalent problem in Hawaii.
The Maui and Honolulu police departments opposed drafts of the bill that did not exempt law enforcement from the prohibition on requesting social media information because they said preventing police from examining applicants’ social media accounts would compromise their extensive background check process.
The House Labor and Public Employment Committee amended the bill to exempt law enforcement, but the House Judiciary Committee removed the exemption before passing the bill on to the Senate — where it died without being heard by the Judiciary and Labor Committee.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii supported the bill throughout the session because it said it is concerned that employers could begin requiring social media information without statutory language that prohibits the practice.
"Private activities that would never be intruded upon offline should not receive less privacy protection simply because they take place online," the ACLU said in its written testimony.
Ing said he plans to continue to support similar legislation because it’s "com- mon sense."