Re: Let's put an end to the Facebook circus
A couple of reasons why I stopped using Facebook. People have lost jobs and/or not gotten jobs because employers find them on Facebook. There was one employer that not only demanded the employees Facebook account but demanded the password
I believe there was a case about this... and someone somewhere found a law that would prohibit an employer, legally, from actually asking for your password. That's not to say they won't do it, but still - that specifically is illegal. However, there is also no law saying they can't ask you to input your password for them so they can go in and look for themselves, nor is there a law saying they can't have someone from HR send you a friend request.
Note that not having a Facebook page (or social networking page of any kind, such as Google+) looks bad to some employers, too - they can feel you might have something to hide, or that you actually have an account somewhere you're not telling them about. Additionally, if the account doesn't look like it is being used they could flag it as being "fake" and that can affect job hire or perhaps even keeping a job.
IIRC, last I looked, there was some talk about defining a few clear laws/regulations to keep employers out of social networking sites of both potential and current employees. There were some fairly good points being made as to why these laws needed to come down, some of which referred back around to violation of employment laws which can easily happen with just a simple viewing of the Facebook page. What if the employer captures your age, or a mental condition, or one of a long list of criteria that employers are severely punished for using in employment decisions? The company could be sued if that person is then not hired, if they can argue the case that they were discriminated against based on information the employer saw in their profile. And what if an employer see's a current employee's profile and incriminating information comes up that should result in them firing that individual? What if the employer is not legally allowed to know that information? They could be on the hook whether that individual is fired or not. I don't remember the specific instance of the latter example, but don't feel like looking it up right now.
Main point (or TL;DR): Not keeping a Facebook profile is not protecting you as much as you think. Some laws may be coming up in the future to keep employers out of all social networking profiles. And employers who currently discriminate based on Facebook are not aware that they are potentially opening themselves up to lawsuits based on current laws... it comes down to being somewhat of a perfect storm for one wrong move from a business, and one good lawsuit, for permanent legal precedent.
Source: I wrote a research paper on Facebook and privacy last year
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