We’re seeing more and more similar cases of this nature, aren’t we?

This one is a year old, but the person involved is now actually suing her employer.

At happened last spring, when a teacher’s aide was asked to reveal her Facebook password by the Michigan school she worked for as a teacher’s aide, Kimberly Hester refused. While she wasn’t technically “fired,” she hasn’t worked for a year, being put on paid administrative leave, to collect workers’ compensation, before she was suspended. She now awaits arbitration in May.

She had posted a photo on her Facebook page that a parent saw because she had been granted ‘friend’ status–a photo the parent found offensive, even though Hester called it a joke. The parent called the school to complain and the rest is what we call recent history.

But the case touches upon the gray areas surrounding privacy issues when it comes to social media. More and more employers are asking for passwords, to the outrage of many, who view it as a violation of their privacy. A recent attempt to introduce legislation at the national level that would make it illegal for companies to ask for passwords, was struck down. But at least one state, Michigan, is entertaining a bill to do the same at the state level.