The City of Bozeman, Mont., found itself in a sticky situation in June when it began requiring candidates for city jobs to provide usernames and passwords for social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace.

The controversial policy incited a firestorm of complaints from job applicants and privacy advocates. On June 19, the city revoked the policy.

While the situation in Bozeman created a national uproar, Mark McCreary, a Fox Rothschild partner, says there's a better argument for requesting that information prior to employment than after hiring someone because it doesn't change a policy midstream.

“It's much more permissible to say, 'You've got to give us access to these records before we're going to hire you,'” he says.

The City of Bozeman, Mont., found itself in a sticky situation in June when it began requiring candidates for city jobs to provide usernames and passwords for social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace.

The controversial policy incited a firestorm of complaints from job applicants and privacy advocates. On June 19, the city revoked the policy.

While the situation in Bozeman created a national uproar, Mark McCreary, a Fox Rothschild partner, says there's a better argument for requesting that information prior to employment than after hiring someone because it doesn't change a policy midstream.

“It's much more permissible to say, 'You've got to give us access to these records before we're going to hire you,'” he says.