Employment Matters Blog - A blog about current developments & issues in employment, labor & benefits law

By Christophe R. Difo

In October 2012, we told you about the case of Eagle v. Edcomm, Inc. pertaining to whether an employee’s LinkedIn account belongs to the employee (Linda Eagle) or to her employer (Edcomm).  At that time, the United States District Court for the District of Pennsylvania dismissed Ms. Eagle’s claims under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, as well as her other federal law claims.  Her state law claims, for unauthorized use of name, invasion of privacy, misappropriation of publicity, among other claims, were not dismissed.  You can read more about that case here, or hear it discussed at this link.

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By Martha J. Zackin

What a year it’s been for the National Labor Relations Board! Under the guise of preserving workers’ rights under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act, which includes the broad right “to engage in [ ] concerted activities for the purpose collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection,” the NLRB has:

• Invalidated a policy prohibiting employees from making statements that “damage the Company, defame any individual or damage any person’s reputation” was overly broad, in that it would “reasonably tend to chill employees” in the exercise of their Section 7 rights to protest working conditions (read more);

• Found that a company’s blanket policy of requesting participants in an internal investigation to keep the investigation confidential improperly infringes on employees’ Section 7 rights (read more);

• Weighed in on employers’ social media policies (read more and more); and

• Otherwise sought to expand its considerable influence over both unionized and non-unionized workplaces (read more).

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We have written here about the practice of some employers to ask applicants for their Facebook login and password information, so they can have a “look around” as part of the interview process, and about Facebook's position on such requests.

My colleagues over at the Privacy and Security Matters Blog have weighed in, with an analysis of a new California la prohibiting employers from requesting or requiring access to social media accounts.  For more information, click here.

News outlets are all a-twitter about the practice of some employers to ask applicants for their Facebook login and password information, so they can have a “look around” as part of the interview process. Click here and here for here, for sample stories. The ACLU has weighed in, with the following statement:

It’s an invasion of privacy for private employers to insist on looking at people’s private Facebook pages as a condition of employment or consideration in an application process. People are entitled to their private lives. You’d be appalled if your employer insisted on opening up your postal mail to see if there was anything of interest inside. It’s equally out of bounds for an employer to go on a fishing expedition through a person’s private social media account.

Legislators in Illinois and Maryland agree, and have introduced bills restricting the practice. We will keep you posted as this story plays out, in the press, legislatures, and courts.

These days, many employers sponsor social media accounts, whether on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, or other social media sites.  Of course, the “company” itself cannot post to an account, so the task always falls on one or more employees to post entries and monitor the accounts.  But, what happens when an employee who is tasked with managing the company’s social media presence resigns or is fired?  In other words, who “owns” the accounts?

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