Millions of people log on to social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube every day to chronicle the intimate details of their personal and professional lives. It should come as no surprise that some of these people are your current and prospective employees. While employers and human resource directors would like to believe that all of their employees are acting responsibly on the Internet, there nevertheless remains the possibility that one or more of them could be acting in a manner that may be contrary to their company's principles, values or, more importantly, the strict and unforgiving mandates of its employment policies. Naturally, some level of curiosity exists as to employees' and applicants' dealings on the Internet.

Employers across the country are therefore turning to social media to weed out unwanted candidates from their growing list of applicants. They are also keeping an eye on how their employees are representing themselves (and, by extension, their companies) in an ever-increasing online world. Unfortunately, most online activities occurring on social media are protected by privacy settings that limit access to some or all of the content on users' social media pages. Businesses are understandably wary of employees acting in a disparaging way while simultaneously displaying an affiliation to their company (such as listing the employer on their social media profile). Because of this, they are increasingly requesting access to employees' and potential hires' social media pages, so companies can have access to the juicy morsels of information behind the privacy curtain.

But one critical question remains: Can an employer legally require applicants and employees to turn over access to their social media profiles, revealing all content and messages that various privacy settings often hide? If your company operates in Maryland or Illinois, the answer is an emphatic “no.” And if your company operates elsewhere, the slightly-less-emphatic-but-prudent answer is “probably not.”