Social Media

Monitoring your usage

• Employers have a right to monitor their computing system usage:– E-mail– Phone– Internet usage– Accessing social media using the employer’s

resources.

Monitoring

• Your employer may be looking for how you use social networking media.– What are you saying on the blog-sphere, twitter,

facebook, etc about• Your fellow employees• Company management• Clients• Competitors

Legal Precedent

• Company-provided computing resources belong to your employer. They have a right to monitor your usage of those resources.

Employment Termination

• Inappropriate usage of company supplied resources could result in termination

Recommendation

• Disclosure: Every employer should inform their employees that the employee’s resource usage could be monitored at anytime.

The Life of E-mail

• Once you send an e-mail, …– It may get forwarded to unintended recipients– It may get backed-up and have a permanent life

time.– You could end up sending it to the wrong person.– E-mail can be subpoenaed.

Social Media

• What are your rights when it comes to posting information using non-employee based resources?

Social Media

• You can write anything you want and post it to a blog, twitter, facebook, etc.; but be prepared for the consequences.

• There is no protection of personal rights when you post publicly accessible statements.

Social Media Don’ts

• Disclose confidential information• Criticism of clients, colleagues, management,

your employer.

Social Media

• If you are publishing information that is contrary to your employers wishes, they have a right to act against you.

Social Media

• How much social media content have you posted/published?

• Consider this:– A prospective employer could search for your

social media postings/publications. Will they be impressed or horrified?

– 13% of employers are looking at social media postings/pub of job applicants. Expect this figure to rise.