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Privacy

How to draft a social networking company policy

10/12/2010
According to a recent survey, 22% of employees say they use some form of social networking five or more times per week, and 15% admit they access social networking while at work for personal reasons. Yet, only 22% of companies have a formal policy that guides employees in how they can use social networking at work. Here’s why you need one—and what it should include.

Supremes start work: 3 employment law cases on High Court docket this year

10/05/2010
The Supreme Court term that began yesterday will decide three important employment law cases. Here’s our round-up of upcoming High Court arguments that could affect background checks, discipline and firings and the tricky issue of determining the employment eligibility of foreign-born workers.

You can insist on investigation confidentiality

09/10/2010

Make it a policy to keep it confidential when conducting internal investigations into discrimination or harassment. That way, rumors and exaggerated claims won’t influence other employees who haven’t yet told investigators their side of the story. Employers that terminate employees for violating that confidentiality needn’t worry that doing so is retaliation, at least according to a recent 11th Circuit decision.

How should we handle a deceased worker’s e-mail?

09/08/2010
Q. A deceased employee’s spouse has asked us for copies of personal e-mails that were on the employee’s work computer. Can we provide her copies?

Lesson from the court: Never disclose former employees’ medical info

08/20/2010

“Hi, this is Mike from XYZ Company. I’d like to ask you a few questions about a former employee whom you used to manage.” At some point in managers’ careers, they’ll receive such a phone call from an ex-employee’s prospective employer. Be careful: One simple mistake in your response could trigger an expensive lawsuit. Remember: Never disclose medical information about former employees.

It’s time to review your e-monitoring policies

07/27/2010
A long-awaited Supreme Court ruling has reiterated the importance of all employers to draft and enforce a comprehensive electronic communications policy governing how employees can use e-mail, the Internet, cell phones and text services.

May we check an employee message sent from work to his personal e-mail?

07/23/2010
Q. One of our sales managers thinks a salesperson has been e-mailing confidential customer information to his personal e-mail address. Can we review the salesperson’s sent-messages file on the company’s e-mail server to see what he has been sending out?

Can we use GPS cell phones to track employees without telling them?

07/23/2010
Q. Our employees have company-issued cell phones with global positioning systems capabilities. Can we use the GPS to track employees’ movements without telling them we are doing so?

Are there privacy concerns when I use social media to check out applicants?

07/23/2010
Q. Am I invading applicants’ privacy by reviewing their Facebook, MySpace, blogs and Twitter feeds?

Text messages and employee privacy: The Supreme Court weighs in

07/20/2010

The U.S. Supreme Court has held that a police department’s search of an officer’s text messages was reasonable and didn’t violate the officer’s Fourth Amendment rights. The court said that even if the officer had a reasonable expectation of privacy in his text messages, the search was motivated by a legitimate work-related purpose and was not excessive in scope.