About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

5 J. Bus. & Tech. L. Proxy 1 (2010)

handle is hein.journals/jbtprxy5 and id is 1 raw text is: DAMIAN R. LAPLACA & NOAH WINKELLER* Legal Implications of the Use of Social Media: Minimizing the Legal Risks for Employers and Employees INTRODUCTION THE EXPLOSION OF ONLINE SOCIAL MEDIA FOR BUSINESS purposes has increased the liability risks for employers and employees. The use of technology and social media has raised new workplace issues that require a constant review of employer Internet and email use policies. Many of the workplace issues involve whether the employer had in place a policy covering the use of the technology or social media for business and incidental personal use and whether the employee had a reasonable expectation in the privacy of messages sent or received. What was once verbally discussed in private is now communicated in a way that creates a permanent record, and more often than not is the subject of an email, text, or instant message, all of which can fairly easily be retrieved, printed, forwarded, and made public. In fact, the Supreme Court recently accepted for review City of Ontario v. Quon,1 which addresses whether a California city's SWAT team employees had a reasonable expectation of privacy in personal messages sent via city-owned pagers. In most cases, the adoption and enforcement of the use policy will drive the analysis of whether the employee could reasonably expect his messages to be free of employer scrutiny and otherwise remain a private communication between two (or more) people. Most employers have adopted policies that govern the use of email and the Internet for business and personal use and state that the employee should expect no privacy in these communications or sites visited. For legitimate business purposes, many employers monitor email communications and websites visited, though not © 2010 Damian R. LaPlaca & Noah Winkeller. I Damian LaPlaca is a partner at Donovan Hatem LLP in Boston, Massachusetts. Noah Winkeller is a student at the Northeastern University School of Law. The purpose of this article is to provide general information, rather than advice or opinion. It is accurate to the best of the authors' knowledge as of the date of this article. Accordingly, this article should not be viewed as a substitute for the guidance and recommendations of retained counsel. 1. 130 S. Ct. 1011 (2009). 2. Id. JOURNAL OF BUSINESS & TECHNOLOGY LAW PROXY

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most