The city of Bozeman, Montana has backed down over its request that job applicants hand over their passwords for social networking and blogging site in order to get a job with city. Bozeman city officials said they’ll

suspend the practice of reviewing password protected information they’ve already received until they conduct a more comprehensive evaluation of the practice.

Bozeman City Manager Chris Kukulski told news channel KULR:

The extent of our request for a candidacy’s password, username, and other internet information appears to have exceeded that which is acceptable in our community.

The Montana ACLU expressed in more diplomatic terms what tens of thousand of people around the world felt when they read about the city’s invasive requirements:

Saying that they want people’s username and password for social networking sites is crossing the line.