California Governor Jerry Brown announced on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn and MySpace today that he has signed two bills (Senate Bill 1349 and Assembly Bill 1844) prohibiting public and private postsecondary schools and California employers from requiring applicants and employees to provide their social media account passwords.

“California pioneered the social media revolution. These laws protect Californians from unwarranted invasions of their social media accounts,” Brown tweeted.

Senate Bill 1349 prohibits public and private postsecondary schools from requesting social media passwords from students.

Assembly Bill 1844  prohibits employers from requiring or requesting an employee or applicant for a job from disclosing a user name or password for the purpose of accessing personal social media.

The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association and FINRA previously spoke out  against Assembly Bill 1844.

We will provide a management alert outling the requirements of the new law.