Security for Me: Social Network Passwords for Job Applications?

A recent news article from CNN shows that the city of Bozeman, Montana, USA, has been pressured into removing an item in its background-check waiver form requesting all applicants for to disclose their account names and passwords for social networking websites such as Facebook, MySpace and Youtube.

Now, who in the right mind would do that really give up their log-in details? I bet they provide fake ones or just ignored the request...

My advice if you ever encounter this: this is privacy invasion. Do not disclose them in any way to anyone. Just reply if being asked "my personal life has nothing to do with my professional one and my private credentials are my own and they do not make subject of your concern".

It is common for employers to read applicants blogs before an interview (this happened to me also), but they usually inform you about that. This statement was addressed to me recently and it was quite pertinent: "I have read your blog located at lusuthegost.blogspot.com and saw this remark of yours ... Can you detail this for me?". That one is normal and expected especially since I have included the blog address in my CV. If you wonder why did I ever do that is because my posts are related to security, Windows and programming and it shows some community activity which counts to some extend for a job application.