I once walked out of an interview because they told me about their mandatory drug testing policy, and I don't ever take any illegal recreational drugs. I just found the culture of distrust created by the statement "we need to inspect your bodily fluids" to be toxic. I'm fortunate that I had the luxury to do that.

Similarly, I never post anything on Facebook (or the Internet at large) that I wouldn't feel comfortable seeing on the front page of the newspaper. But the moment anyone asks for any account password, I'm done talking to them.

Yeah, the unequal bargaining power between the company and the candidate is a real problem. Even if the company makes providing the access information optional, there's still a kind of invasive coercion happening.

That said, companies have been requiring that applicants submit credit reports for a long time, so the idea that there's a bright line between what's "private" and what's "public" when it comes to employment isn't quite right.

I once worked for a company that did a lot of military contracts. They would ask some of us to get security clearance to be able to work certain projects (and enter the 'secret room'). It was still optional and I never felt it pushed on me even though it would have had career benefits. I opted out because the requirements and paperwork were nuts and part of the deal was that the government would potentially track whenever you left/entered the country and a whole bunch of other things.

I thought this was a really nice way of letting your employees have a choice even though in this particular case they probably could have forced everybody to do it. Now you have companies which do not really need to have this personal information asking employees for it. Here's the thing though. If my employees had lots of nasty things to say about my company then my reaction wouldn't be to stop them by monitoring everything they do. Wouldn't you want to try and fix the problem?

I agree with you. The thing I'm debating is what is the appropriate further action you should take before you leave.

I once left an interview because the NDA they wanted me to sign gave them rights to all of my work for the next 6 months, and the right to audit me at any day or time by searching my house!

I told the HR person I wasn't willing to sign that, and why, that it would prevent me working anywhere if I didn't get that particular job, and she reacted as if I was being a prima donna.

If the HR person thought that you were being a prima donna for not wanting to sign that NDA, then you're just doubly lucky that you didn't wind up working there.

Yes some companies do seem to have a vastly inflated sense of their own importance. Id be tempted to say the HR person "just who the fuck do you think you are" and does the CEO dress up and run round the woods with airsoift guns pretending he's in the SAS / DEvGuru.