The /. comments on this were rather good too. Points made:
1. Most sites have a terms of service that says you will not give you login information out to anyone else, or allow anyone else to login to your account. So by requesting this information the City is asking potential applications to violate a contract. Especially since they specifically mentioned Facebook and this is in the Facebook ToS.
2. There are a lot of things that are illegal for employers to ask for (sexual preference, groups that you belong to, ethnicity, etc) and most of these things are present in someone's Facebook profile. So by requiring access to Facebook, you are requiring them to hand over access to information that it is illegal to require...
3. Lots of people use the same password for multiple accounts. Their Facebook password could be their online banking password. That puts an employer at a HUGE liability if one of the employees breaks into this information to do some identity theft. Even if some 3rd party gains access through another method, you could be investigated as the possible leak and/or theif.
4. By requiring users to provide this information (i.e. passwords to personal accounts) you're only going to end up with employees that will easily give out secure information. The vulnerability of your workplace to social engineering attacks will go WAY up because anyone that would be smart enough to question whether there really is a 'Bob from IT' that 'needs their password' are people that wouldn't fill in their information into the application.
5. Employers that do this open themselves up to possible lawsuits from people for requiring information that no one will ever truthfully fill out and then using it as some sort of 'we can fire you at any time because we know that you lied on your application' carrot over someone's head.
Edit:
Also, I could give my Facebook login to this employer. Deface my Facebook account, then claim that the company/ did it b/c the company had access to that information.
1. Most sites have a terms of service that says you will not give you login information out to anyone else, or allow anyone else to login to your account. So by requesting this information the City is asking potential applications to violate a contract. Especially since they specifically mentioned Facebook and this is in the Facebook ToS.
2. There are a lot of things that are illegal for employers to ask for (sexual preference, groups that you belong to, ethnicity, etc) and most of these things are present in someone's Facebook profile. So by requiring access to Facebook, you are requiring them to hand over access to information that it is illegal to require...
3. Lots of people use the same password for multiple accounts. Their Facebook password could be their online banking password. That puts an employer at a HUGE liability if one of the employees breaks into this information to do some identity theft. Even if some 3rd party gains access through another method, you could be investigated as the possible leak and/or theif.
4. By requiring users to provide this information (i.e. passwords to personal accounts) you're only going to end up with employees that will easily give out secure information. The vulnerability of your workplace to social engineering attacks will go WAY up because anyone that would be smart enough to question whether there really is a 'Bob from IT' that 'needs their password' are people that wouldn't fill in their information into the application.
5. Employers that do this open themselves up to possible lawsuits from people for requiring information that no one will ever truthfully fill out and then using it as some sort of 'we can fire you at any time because we know that you lied on your application' carrot over someone's head.
Edit:
Also, I could give my Facebook login to this employer. Deface my Facebook account, then claim that the company/ did it b/c the company had access to that information.