[whateverer]

Walking out may feel good, as righteous indignation so often does, but it doesn’t help your situation. You give up any chance you had of getting the job. Lying is easily disproven, and. worst of all, requires you to lie. The best answer is to calmly and respectfully say “I believe it’s best for business to keep business and personal life separate. That’s why I keep my private life private.” You may not get the job, but at least you’ll have been turned down while keeping a strong sense of ethics about you… which is more than you can say for companies that would ask to snoop in your private life.

I guess this is the best course of action for most people. But us in the tech industry are in the perfect, and perfectly privileged, position to nip this right in the bud by walking out and explaining our rationale, if only because we can easily get another interview at a company which won't engage in this idiocy.

No reason to allow it to become widespread in the first place.

[Udo]

I agree and would take it even further to say that drawing a line in the sand based on personal convictions is almost always a good choice.

> Walking out may feel good, as righteous indignation so often does, but it doesn’t help your situation

I think that walking out of these situations is not so much a sign of giving in to righteous indignation but more of a way to abort a situation that has already become unsalvageable. In this case, the prospective employer making demands like these is in itself a glaring signal that you don't want to work at this place. Continuing to sit at their table after voicing your disagreement in the absolutely ridiculous "hope" of getting a job offer is not only a waste of time for both sides, it's a surefire way to be humiliated. Might as well leave while you still have the high ground.

Back in the day when I was occasionally interviewing people for positions I came across utterly incompatible applicants quite often, and sometimes those interviews were extremely uncomfortable for both parties. Actually, I wished more people walked out of my interviews when I myself could not.

[ktizo]

Tell them they have failed the interview process and should not contact you again for a second attempt should the position to employ you come round again.

And then walk out.

[MartinCron]

The problem that I have is the climate of profound mistrust it creates.

Even if I refused and were offered the job anyway because of my excellent convictions, I wouldn't want to take it, because the culture is one that defaults to extreme mistrust. That's the same reason I did walk out of a job interview requiring a drug screen even though I don't do any drugs.

If I've got a drug or booze or facebook or gambling problem, it will impact my work in a visible way. If it doesn't impact my work in a visible way, then it isn't a problem, is it?

[Casseres]

Choice #3:

Offer to log in for them and let them look around. Say, "After all, you wouldn't give me your password if I asked, would you?" You might even get bonus points if you have "Login Approvals" enabled (the six digit code sent by text message).

[Karunamon]

The point is that they have no business seeing it in the first place, not so much that they have your password (which is just the icing on the crap cake)

[ryguytilidie]

Not sure one could miss the point anymore than this.