Google Buzz Settlement Finally Final Final

This has been dragging out far longer than the time Buzz got itself in trouble long enough to be the target of class action privacy violation lawsuits.  At long last various privacy advocacy groups will receive funds along with more than $2 million for the plaintiff attorneys.

CA Social Media Privacy Has Another Chance

Last month, SB 242, the California bill on social media privacy failed to get the votes to move forward. It appears the bill has another chance next week when it could come up for reconsideration.  The San Francisco Chronicle has come out strongly in favor of the legislation. As I mentioned before, the bill could end up doing nothing if the federal privacy bill becomes law and preempts California law on this issue.

What Now After LinkedIn IPO?

Is LinkedIn sexy now?  While there is no question that LinkedIn had been popular, it has never been the media darling that Twitter and Facebook have become.  However, with a very successful IPO under its belt, it might never need to be sexy just the glue that holds together the professional world. Because it focuses on all things professional, it has a much narrower range than the other two social media giants.  However, that work to its benefit as its grabbing critical information about how people interact as professionals.  That can be monetized without a doubt.

What About Lawyers?

As I’ve mentioned before, I’d like to see LinkedIn become more sensitive to needs of particular professionals and how they represent themselves.  Now that they have serious cash, its time for them to connect with the ABA and make sure that they conform to the model rules of professional responsibility in how they structure their profiles.  Three quick fixes would go a long way:

• Allow attorneys to edit “specialties” and turn it into “Focus Areas” or the like
• Allow contacts to be shared at the contact level rather than globally
• Allow attorneys to easily insert footnotes for disclaimers on recommendations, answers to questions and even the profiles generally.

NLRB Facebook Complaints – Another Take

I noted the latest complaint filed by the NLRB against employers here. At yesterday’s program on social media policies for companies Jessica Braverman, an employment law attorney who specializes in these cases, suggested that these are cases that aren’t likely to impact non-union employers in California. First, because she thinks these cases mostly impact employers having to negotiate collective bargaining agreements and also because the NLRB in California is unlikely to be so aggressive in this area.

Something to watch for!

Drs. & Lawyers Need to Use Facebook Cautiously

This article outlines the rules doctors and other healthcare professionals have using social media which are similar to those for lawyers but are event stricter.  Take for example the doctor who posted information about a trauma patient and ended up getting fired from the hospital and disciplined by her medical board.  She hadn’t even posted the patient’s name but enough information to make the disclosure a violation under HIPAA, the (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act).

Other issues a doctor faces is displaying themselves drinking wine in a Facebook photo or engaging other behavior that might make a patient think twice about having this person operate on them.  I don’t think lawyers have to worry about that – clients aren’t as worried about the precision of their lawyers language in the courtroom as potential patients are with a surgeon with the scalpel!

Why Social Media User Agreements Matter

This article published in the Montreal Gazette discusses users’ enforceable rights on Twitter, Facebook etc.  While these sites require users to broadly agree to their terms of use, they claim to allow users to “own” their own content.  However, in this case the Agence France-Presse published a photographer’s Haitian Earthquake photos without permission from the photographer.  The media company claims the photographer had uploaded them to Twitter so he had consented to having his photos free to re-publish to anyone.

But is that a reasonable expectation for a Twitter user to have about their content?  Are people simply signing away valuable rights without understanding what they are doing?

Lawyers & Facebook – Oil & Water?

Kevin O’Keefe posts about how attorneys shouldn’t dismiss Facebook as a networking tool.  I like how he fits Facebook into the an attorney’s social marketing toolkit as something different from LinkedIn.  He sees Facebook as a way to nuture more well-rounded relationships online.  For LinkedIn, its all business but for those people you think its worth getting to know on a more personal basis, Facebook can be a good way to go.

Be Thy Self Online

I don’t enjoy Facebook.  I have a profile and I stream blog posts into it but I barely look at my “Wall” and even more rarely make a personal contribution or respond to someone else’s update.  This may change.  I may find a way to incorporate Facebook into my life that feels right but until then I’m not going bring a false persona to the site just for business development purposes.

CA Privacy Bill Conflict with Fed Proposal?

A California Senate Bill – SB242 proposes to force social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and others to prompt users to create their privacy settings before they register with the website rather than the current approach which creates default settings for users that have them sharing photos, biographical information and only allowing them to alter these settings once they are already using the website.

Federal Privacy Bill of Rights

The California bill may exceed the privacy standards of the proposed Federal legislation and that legislation preempts any state standards so it will be interesting to see how these conflicts resolve themselves.

NLRB Keeps Social Media Front & Center

The NLRB continues to push employers to make it clear to employees that they will not face termination because they have posted comments on Facebook etc. about the terms and conditions of their employment.

In a case involving build.com and a former employee, the NRLB as part of the settlement required the employer to post a 60 day notice about employees not getting terminated for discussing workplace terms and conditions on social media websites.

Even more interesting, the NLRB has made social networking issues a priority for cases in the future.

ACC Favors Draft Rules Re: Sophisticated Clients

Recently, I posted about the big firms attempt to carve out a special niche regarding professional rules of conduct that apply to “sophisticated” clients. Now the Association of Corporate Counsel appears to be getting on the bandwagon.  Since they are the key party that will be impacted by this approach, its good news for the big firms.