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.
Posts Tagged ‘Linkedin’
CA Social Media Privacy Bill Fails
May 28, 2011This article explains that SB 242 deadlocked in the California Senate with a vote of 16-16. There was a big push by Google, Facebook and others in the emerging social networking industry lobby who were successful in killing the bill that would have made it harder for these companies to collect and retain all the personally identifiable information they use to build their successful ad businesses.
There was no mention in the article about the Federal efforts and the fact that they could preempt this California level effort from the get go.
More NLRB Facebook News
May 27, 2011Yesterday I posted about how Jessica Braverman is doubtful about the NLRB’s aggressive stance regarding private employers ability to fire workers for what they say about the workplace on Facebook. She is particularly doubtful about how this will play out in California. So far, she has been right as the latest complaint the NLRB filed concerned a BMW dealership and their sales team in Chicago.
But Are Private Employers Treated Differently than those with Union Workers?
It doesn’t look like it as these employees were commissioned sales professionals. The more interesting question to me is where the line is in terms of disparaging your employer versus discussing working terms and conditions. For example, if employees go to Facebook and complain about personal aspects of their boss – that he is fat or ugly or never laughs, that probably won’t qualify as discussing working terms and conditions but the worker add that he never smiles or says anything nice, that could be creating a hostile working environment. This seems like a slippery slope and what if the intent of the workers is clearly to complain but they include issues that impact the workplace – is that enough to trigger Section 7?
Congress, FTC Look at Online Privacy
May 24, 2011A new buzz phrase is emerging in this area called, “privacy by design” which is thoroughly considered by the Information Law Group in this post. Here are some highlights:
- Know how and when your business interacts with consumers and the implications on the privacy of the information they provide
- Consider the demographic of your company’s products or market – certain segments will be more concerned about privacy protections than others
- Stay abreast of what the FTC and Congress is doing in this area as it’s pretty fluid right now
- Keep in mind data collection, security and retention when drafting the appropriate policies