[Go here for S’s 1 and 2]
S #3. Surveillance or “Snooping”
What’s the Risk?
When you monitor employee’s social media activity, you run two risks, says Yip:
- Damage to morale. The company may call it surveillance, but the employees will view it as snooping, and they won’t like it. The vast majority of employees aren’t doing anything wrong (and your best employees are probably in this group) but they will feel that the company doesn’t trust them.
- Exposure to legal liability:
- Discrimination claims. As with searches, monitoring will likely turn up information that you wish you didn’t have.
- Violation of antihacking laws, for example, under the Stored Communications Act. This is an archaic act—passed before the Internet became a major factor in communications—says Yip, yet it is cited in about 25 percent of cases.
- Privacy claims. These claims are primarily brought under state law.
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Risk Management Tips:
- Set written policies. Consider how employees use social media and the Internet in their daily work, what types of sites they need to visit.
- Inform workers about your monitoring.
- Obtain consent from workers.
- Filter or block certain Internet content.
- Stay within legal limits of what information employers can and cannot access.
- Currently, no specific laws govern monitoring of employee’s social media activity on company equipment.
- Stored Communications Act (mentioned above).
- Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (which governs the unauthorized access to others’ computers).
S #4. Secrets
What’s the Risk?
- Proprietary information falling into the wrong hands. For example, a customer list, new product plans, or a secret formula.
- Loss of protection under trade secret laws. Publication of a trade secret may destroy its status as a trade secret, says Yip.
- Loss of social media assets. When people leave the company, who owns their social media presence? For example, who owns their 27,000 Twitter followers?
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Risk Management Tips:
- Define “trade secret.” Yip recommends using this language from the Economic Espionage Act:
“Trade secret” includes: all forms and types of financial, business, scientific, technical, economic, or engineering information, including patterns, plans, compilations, program devices, formulas, designs, prototypes, methods, techniques, processes, procedures, programs, or codes, whether tangible or intangible, and whether or how stored, compiled, or memorialized physically, electronically, graphically, photographically, or in writing.
- Enter into written agreements with employees regarding trade secrets (as defined).
- Train employees about protections against disclosure of proprietary information.
- Insist that employees turn on privacy settings for any social media accounts they use for business.
- Impose restrictions on access to proprietary information. (If there is a lawsuit, you will certainly be asked, What kinds of restrictions did you place on this information? says Yip.).
- Restrictions can be physical or electronic.
- Address the problem of departing employees.
- Take control of your organization’s presence in the social media space.
- Monitor your organization’s online presence, for example, with Google alerts.