Your bosses have figured out that, in your free time, you might possibly be engaging in activities that call your character into question.

Not that you couldn’t have been table dancing and body-shotting at Club Nitro every Saturday night since you turned 21. The difference is now you might be sharing evidence of all those crazy nights with your entire Facebook community. And your employer wants to know about it.

News is spreading that not only are many employers now routinely requesting access to their employees’ Facebook accounts, some are taking it one step further.

Imagine this. You are sitting nervously across from an HR manager, interviewing for your dream job. You manage to sound confident and knowledgeable while answering her questions and she seems to think you are a great fit for the job.

As the interview wraps up, you are certain a job offer is coming, but instead, the HR manager asks if she may view your Facebook profile. When you respond that “Sure, but you won’t be able to see much because of my privacy settings,” she replies by asking if you are willing to log in to your account while she observes.

How would you respond?

This scenario isn’t just hypothetical.

Last week, the Associated Press reported that a new trend in human resources and hiring is asking for access to applicants’ social media accounts at the point of hire—even during interviews—and that, in an effort to protect users’ privacy, Facebook is responding to the practice:

Some private and public agencies around the country [are] asking job seekers for their social media credentials. The practice has alarmed privacy advocates, but its legality remains murky.

Facebook warned employers not to ask job applicants for their passwords, presumably so they could view applicant profiles on the site. The company threatened legal action against applications that violated its longstanding policy against sharing passwords.

And while the legality of this action may be questionable, whether or not there are already specific laws in place to protect job seekers from discrimination based on things learned from a Facebook wall (or Twitter stream) remains to be seen.

So think twice before you upload all those pictures of yourself in that Naughty Nurse Nancy Halloween costume. Because, while you may want to show the world that you have the bod to pull off that look, someone with the power to make or break your career may be one of the people asking to take a look.

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What do you think?
Will this trend affect what you share via social media?
Leave a comment and weigh in on the issue.