It is almost certainly illegal in the European Union.
The EU Data Protection (i.e. privacy) law means that if you're collecting personal information (in any way, not just computer), then you have to:
(a) Explain why you are asking for it, and you have to give a legitimate reason why you want to know it. You cannot store information you cannot explain why you need it
(b) You then have to store the personal information in a secure manner. So you can just ask for access to someone's Facebook account and then share it around the office.
(c) The personal data requested must be proportionate to what you want to do. I doubt "tell us everything about your social life" is acceptable for just hiring a person for a job.
(there might be other reasons why this is against data protection law, but I can't think of any off the top of my head)
Not to mention the much stronger employee rights (e.g. you cannot not hire someone based on family status, sexuality, etc.), and it would be much harder to prove you didn't use that information if you accessed it. (Employee protection is stronger in EU, none of this "at will" crap)
The EU Data Protection (i.e. privacy) law means that if you're collecting personal information (in any way, not just computer), then you have to:
(a) Explain why you are asking for it, and you have to give a legitimate reason why you want to know it. You cannot store information you cannot explain why you need it
(b) You then have to store the personal information in a secure manner. So you can just ask for access to someone's Facebook account and then share it around the office.
(c) The personal data requested must be proportionate to what you want to do. I doubt "tell us everything about your social life" is acceptable for just hiring a person for a job.
(there might be other reasons why this is against data protection law, but I can't think of any off the top of my head)
Not to mention the much stronger employee rights (e.g. you cannot not hire someone based on family status, sexuality, etc.), and it would be much harder to prove you didn't use that information if you accessed it. (Employee protection is stronger in EU, none of this "at will" crap)