The bill unanimously and will now head to the state senate. Similar legislation was Thursday in the U.S. Congress.

The legislative moves follow reports that employers have demanded passwords for social sites from job applicants, demanded a walk-through of the content on those sites or insisted applicants accept a friend request from a member of staff.

It's unclear how common the practice really is, but [cq], the Democrat who introduced the California bill, there are 129 cases before the National Labor Relations Board involving improper use of social networking accounts by employers.

The practice began to draw public attention in March when a New York statistician that a prospective employer had demanded his Facebook login as part of its screening process. Facebook responded by making it a violation of its terms of service to solicit or share account passwords.

"As a user, you shouldn't be forced to share your private information and communications just to get a job. And as the friend of a user, you shouldn’t have to worry that your private information or communications will be revealed to someone you don’t know and didn’t intend to share with just because that user is looking for a job," Erin Egan, Facebook's chief privacy offer for policy, wrote in a .