Effective as of October 15, 2015, employers in Maine will be restricted in their ability to access the personal social media accounts of applicants and employees. Employers may not terminate, discipline or otherwise take adverse action against an employee, or reject an applicant, due to the employee’s or applicant’s refusal to cooperate with any prohibited request or demand. An employer who violates these prohibitions can be fined by Maine’s Department of Labor. The law provides that such fines will be not less than $100 for the first violation, not less than $250 for the second violation and not less than $500 for each subsequent violation. Maine is the twenty-third state to place restrictions on employers’ access to applicants’ and employees’ personal social media accounts.
Hiring Tips Blog

Maine Enacts Social Media Protections for Applicants and Employees
Sep 1, 2015 | Data Protection & Privacy, Social Media
Recent Posts
- Cleveland Will Prohibit Salary Inquiries and Require Salary Ranges in Job Postings
- Avoid EEOC Complaints
- The “Gold Standard”
- US Replaces ‘Noncitizen’ with ‘Alien’ in Employment Verification Form of Foreign Workers
- Trump’s Immigration Enforcement Against Employees Has Been Gradual. That May Soon Change.
Categories
- Background Check Compliance (99)
- Background Check Laws (58)
- Background Screening (39)
- Biometric Identification (2)
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (1)
- Credit Checks (32)
- Criminal History Check (176)
- Data Protection & Privacy (96)
- E-Verify Issues (74)
- Education Verification (7)
- Educational and Childcare Hiring (28)
- EEOC (48)
- Employer Negligence (36)
- Employment Screening (134)
- Fair Credit Reporting Act (108)
- Featured Posts (1)
- Financial Services Hiring (11)
- Healthcare Hiring (2)
- Hiring Legal Compliance (1)
- Home Services and Repairs Hiring (6)
- Human Resources & Benefits (26)
- Immigration Issues (85)
- IT and Data Security Hiring (10)
- Medical & Pharmaceutical Industry Hiring (9)
- Occupational Fraud (10)
- Pre-employment Drug Testing (182)
- Retail Hiring (14)
- Security Services Hiring (3)
- Social Media (32)
- Transportation Industry Hiring (19)
- Uncategorized (1)
- Wage History Checks (4)