Rumors about Bozeman’s evil policy still bouncing around the Web

A little reminder about the long tail of Web gossip this morning: An article in the Pasadena Star News yesterday still refers to Bozeman's former policy of asking job applicants for their Web passwords.

If you're planning to apply for a job with the city of Bozeman, Mont., prepare to clean up your profiles before you sign that application. As part of Bozeman's background-checking protocol, the city requires applicants to turn over the user names and passwords for all of their social networking sites. Those not willing to comply need not apply. Could this be a harbinger of things to come for other municipalities and private corporations?

Mind you, the policy was eliminated on June 20, more than a month ago.

The fact that word of this policy is still spreading around the Internet is a testament to the staying power of ideas online -- and to the reality that many of those ideas can be out of line with the truth. Still, I suppose this is an indication that, for some people at least, Bozeman has become a symbol of new media policy gone awry. If people can learn from that, I guess it's a good thing -- not good for the city's reputation, but good in general.

I should note one more thing about the Pasadena article. I don't know whether this was written by a real reporter at the paper or whether the paper is even a "newspaper," with reporters, editors, etc. At the bottom of the article, the reporter is identified as the founder of a debt-free living Web site. Maybe she's a regular contributor to the paper; maybe this article was borrowed from an online repository of free content. I don't know.

Can anyone familiar with the paper clarify?

Related posts:

1. Montana ACLU congratulates Bozeman for rescinding password policy
2. City of Bozeman releases report on hiring policy investigation
3. Late afternoon Bozeman fiasco update
4. Bozeman backtracks on privacy matters
5. E-mails to the city of Bozeman