You've had your Facebook searched? What was that process like?

I've gone through tons of background checks / drug screens for federal and state governments, and financial companies. But I've never had a Facebook search...

Is that even legal?

It's legal, though I believe Facebook has stated that it's against their terms of service.

They have probably looked at your public facebook.

FYI http://m.nextgov.com/cio-briefing/2016/04/opm-seeking-social...

Your Facebook searched? What do you mean?

I mean, they asked for my login information to search my Facebook. I actually declined, but they still ran through all the public information and connections I had.

Best answers I can think of here:

"I'm sorry, I don't use Facebook as it seems an invasion of personal privacy"

or

"Ok, here's my Facebook account" and then give them some uber-sanitized account that just has photos of kittens and messages on your mom's wall about her cookies.

Actually, one valid answer is "That's illegal in the state of California."

It works best if you're actually in California, but even if not, it might give them pause.

That results in them finding a different excuse to not hire you and then documenting it in case you sue.

Why not: Here is my link to my facebook portal (include public link). I cannot give you my credentials because I am in a legal agreement with facebook to not give my credentials to anyone.

In case one, wouldn't it be incredibly obvious that you're lying, and in the second case, only marginally plausible that you keep such an empty, vanilla profile?

So not having a facebook account means I'm lying? I really do not have a facebook account so I guess by definition I'm a lier :/

No, that was addressed to tibbon's comment, which I read as him actually having a Facebook account.

Had your Facebook searched? Does that mean they ask for your login and look through it, or look through all the publicly-available information?

I mean, they asked for my login information to search my Facebook. I declined, but they still ran through all the public information and connections I had.

Later, I worked on some of their creepy background checking software. Essentially, without the login, they can still get all the information about me they need.

If this happens to anyone else, just quote Facebook's Statement of Rights and Responsibilities. https://www.facebook.com/terms

4. You will not share your password (or in the case of developers, your secret key), let anyone else access your account, or do anything else that might jeopardize the security of your account.

It's not iron-clad, but it may dissuade the nosy.

This will of course depend on your existing privacy settings.

Those change over time so Facebook exposes more of your information you meant to keep hidden.

I have to check my Facebook every few months to find out what sort of content is now visible to a new group of people that was hidden by me in the past.

Really? I haven't found that to be the case. Everything that I've set to specific privacy groups (me only, friends, etc) has stayed the same.