PitbLAWg may be AWOL on January 18, 2012.
In a USA Today article “TwitPic, WordPress to go dark for online SOPA protest” Yamiche Alcindor reported that WordPress, along with other websites will not available on Wednesday January 18, 2012 to protest the proposed US legislation, Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect Intellectual Property Act.
WordPress is the host site for PitbLAWg. If WordPress is not available then PitbLAWg will not be online for the day. However, we expect that WordPress and PitbLAWg with be back up and running on Thursday January 19th.
PitbLAWg takes no position on the proposed legislation or on the blackout. Thanks for following PitbLAWg and we hope to see you back on January 19th.
Two Minutes for Unnecessary Tweeting
The NHL is preparing to drop the puck on a league-wide Social Media Policy.
CBC reports the policy will include “a social media blackout window before, during and after games, as well as during practice and any other team obligations”.
Like any other legal document, the impact of the NHL’s Social Media Policy will depend on its more minute details, such as the duration of its blackout windows, and what constitutes “any other team obligation”.
You might be wondering why it’s taken the NHL so long to develop a Social Media Policy, especially given the highly publicized headaches social media has caused other professional sporting leagues.
The reality is that, while an employer might feel entitled to control what its employees are saying on social media, and when they say it, restricting employees’ social media usage creates a handful of legal issues in areas such as labour and employment law, intellectual property law and privacy law (to name a few). Most fundamentally, any restriction on employees’ social media usage constitutes a restriction on expression rights, which are given constitutional protection by Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
All of which is to say that implementing a Social Media Policy requires a heck of a lot of legal stickhandling. At Pitblado Law, we understand Social Media Policies, and we’d be happy to help your organization draw up its own social media gameplan.
If you have any questions or if you would like assistance, please contact me via email at buck@pitblado.com.
Choose Your Words Carefully!
Remember that email exchange you had with an individual a year ago? Now that you are in litigation with that individual, the email may be relevant.
The Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench Rules require that any and all relevant documents must be produced in the course of litigation and the term documents includes more than you may think!
Regardless of your means of communication, it is important to remember that what you say and how you say it may be relevant to future litigation.
Here are a just a few suggestions on how you may choose your words carefully next time before you press the send button.
Privacy Commissioner releases report on online tracking, profiling and targeting, and cloud computing
Canada’s Privacy Commissioner has just released the final report of her Office’s consultations on the online tracking, profiling and targeting of consumers by marketers and other businesses. “Most people have no idea about the rich trail of data they leave behind when they browse the Internet, use social networking sites, or engage the geo-location functions of their mobile devices,” the Commissioner observed. Organizations that track the online activities of Canadians must be more upfront about their practices, Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart has concluded… “it comes down to meaningful consent, which entails informed consent”.
What Employers Need to Know About Manitoba’s New Ban on Cell Phones
Manitoba’s ban on the use of hand-held devices while driving will take effect on July 15, 2010. For details on the new legislation please see my previous post entitled “It Pays to Be a Safe Driver”. Employers need to ensure that employees comply with all federal, provincial and municipal rules and regulations regarding the use of cellular devices while driving.
Many employers are not familiar with the potential liability that attaches when it provides employees with cell phones or BlackBerrys, particularly when employees travel as part of their work duties. An employer may be held vicariously liable in the event that an employee is involved in a motor vehicle accident while using a cell phone to conduct business.
So what should your policy on the use of cell phones look like? Here are a couple of key points:
- The policy should be clear that the prohibition applies to more than just cell phones. It also applies to pagers, BlackBerrys, iPhones, etc.
- Employees should know what is meant by “use” under the new legislation. Drivers should be aware that simply holding a cellular device in a position in which it may be used is sufficient grounds for incurring a fine.
- The policy should set out what the proper steps are for fielding a telephone call, text or a page while operating a vehicle.
- Finally, the policy should identify any penalties associated with a breach of the policy.
Let us know if you need assistance in drafting a policy.
It Pays to Be a Safe Driver
Studies have shown that driving while using a cell phone reduces the amount of brain activity associated with driving by 37%. In response to these alarming statistics, other provinces have been introducing legislation to ban the use of hand-held cell phones while driving. My colleague, Brad Madison, provided an update for Ontario in his post entitled, “Hands Free Only in Cottage Country”. Now Manitoba has adopted a similar approach via The Highway Traffic Amendment Act (Promoting Safer and Healthier Conditions in Motor Vehicles) (the “Act“). Effective July 15, 2010, Manitoba drivers caught by police in using a “hand-operated electronic device” will face a $191 fine.
So how do you avoid this stiff fine? Here are the details.
The Act applies to more than just the use of cell phones. It applies to all ”hand operated electronic devices” which includes:
a) a cell phone;
b) a pager;
c) a Blackberry;
d) an iPhone;
e) another electronic device that:
f) an electronic device that is not otherwise described above but that:
The prohibition applies to:
a) receiving or placing calls;
b) checking for phone messages;
c) text messaging;
d) surfing the internet;
e) receiving or responding to e-mails;
f) simply holding the cellular device in a position in which it may be used;
g) operating any of the cellular device’s functions;
h) looking at the device’s display; and
i) taking any other action prohibited by regulation.
The Act provides exceptions for persons using cell phones to call or send messages to police, the fire department or ambulance services about an emergency. There is also an exception for the use of cell phones by police, fire and ambulance personnel.
So next time your want to make a phone call or send a text message while driving, stop your vehicle in a safe place off the roadway before operating your phone.
Drive safe, Manitobans.
Employee monitoring in today’s workplace
There’s no question that as we dive deeper into the information age technology will continue to permeate the workplace. Tech gadgets such as iPhones and Blackberries are cheaper and more convenient than ever before. But as the workplace becomes inundated with these tech tools, businesses increasingly have to ask themselves how they can manage the corresponding legal risks inevitably raised by empowering a legion of employees armed with Smartphones. If only there was “an app for that”!
The “fuel” for many gadgets currently in the workplace is data, which may or may not relate to the employer. And I’m not just thinking of Smartphones provided by the employer. I’m also thinking of social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter, which are often accessed after work hours on employees’ home computers.
What happens when an employer uses data gleaned from a company-owed iPhone or Blackberry to monitor an employee in the workplace? What about monitoring an employee’s Facebook page? After all, it’s not uncommon for information about an employer or its clients to appear on an employee’s Facebook page. Further, some employees have no second thoughts whatsoever about posting personal messages during paid company time. Many employers are introducing social media policies to mitigate the resulting legal risks. But how far should employers go to protect their interests?
I’ll be publishing a series of posts in the coming weeks on my “On the Cutting Edge” blog, which will provide an overview of legal developments regarding monitoring in the workplace, with a focus on employer monitoring of employee social media and Smartphone activities. These posts will also examine workplace privacy issues related to email, video and GPS monitoring. I hope you check them out.
In the meantime, click here to listen to my recent CJOB|68 interview with Human Resources specialist Barbara Bowes in which we discuss privacy issues in the workplace. You may also want to attend a complimentary Social Media in the Workplace webinar that I’ll be providing with a few of my colleagues next week (May 19th). Click here for info and to register.
Hands Free only in Cottage Country
You probably know that, while a new law is coming, talking on your cell phone while driving in Manitoba, though not a good idea, is not illegal… yet. (The Manitoba law has been passed but is awaiting proclamation.) Indications are that Manitobans may see this new law come into force by mid 2010.
What you might not know is that on October 26, 2009, it became illegal to talk on your cell phone while driving in Ontario. Unlike Manitoba’s law, Ontario’s distracted driver law and regulation has come into force.
It is now illegal in Ontario to use a hand-held wireless communication device, other device capable of receiving or transmitting telephone communications, electronic data, mail or text messages or a hand-held electronic “entertainment device” unless it is in “hands-free” mode.
There are some exceptions. If the hands-free device is securely mounted in the vehicle where it can be easily reached and seen at a “quick glance” a driver is permitted to push a button on it to make, answer, or end a cell phone call. However, pushing multiple buttons (say, to dial a number) does not appear to be permitted. To legally make calls while driving in Ontario then, you must use a cell phone with voice dialing capability and you must use a head set, have the phone plugged into the vehicle’s audio system, or use speakerphone (so long as to do so does not require multiple pushes of buttons).
The rules are actually rather complex and there are further exemptions including those for emergency personnel, commercial drivers and calling 9-1-1. For more detail, see this Osler Update.
Additionally, a display screen of a television, computer or other device unrelated to the safe operation of the vehicle must not be visible to the driver. GPS systems, collision avoidance systems, and vehicle information systems are still permitted.
For most of us, the best idea is to let incoming calls go to voicemail and safely pull off the road and stop or park the vehicle before making any phone calls.
Smartphones in the workplace: what’s your business doing to manage the risk?
(Previously published on Brian Bowman – On the Cutting Edge on July 6, 2009)
Recently, an interesting article in the Globe and Mail dealt with the issue of smartphone etiquette. Business professionals fidgeting with their BlackBerrys and iPhones in meetings, walking through airports with eyes glued to their small glowing screens and operating their devices in restrooms may seem unrealistic at first blush, but is it really? The reality is that smartphones have permeated the business world. They are everywhere, they are powerful and have the potential to be extremely damaging.
Breaches of confidential corporate data and personal information are nothing new to the business world, but smartphones have brought a new dimension to the problem. Smartphones are starting to make appearances in Canadian court cases in a supporting role, but it won’t be long before they are squarely in the spotlight. The latest iPhone model has up to 32GB of memory while BlackBerrys can store vast amounts of data on memory cards. The equivalent of entire filing cabinets can now be carried around conveniently in your shirt pocket. This reality has increased the risk for massive privacy breaches in the blink of an eye.
The big question is how involved should employers be in regulating and monitoring their employees use of smartphones? All encompassing monitoring of employee smartphone use is a touchy area, but the permeation of smartphones in today’s corporate world and the corresponding risks to businesses necessitates (at the very least) that relevant guidelines concerning their use in the workplace should be implemented by employers. All it takes to damage a business is for one employee to misplace their smartphone without having first activated their security settings.
-
Authors
-
Mark Wallace
-
Philip Watts
-
Brant Harvey
-
Caroline Kiva
-
Adam Herstein
-
Andrew Buck
-
Benjamin Hecht
-
Bradley Madison
-
Rob Giesbrecht
-
Ned Brown
-
Candace Everard Grammond
-
Lori Dobbie
-
Darryl Antel
-
Andrew Ogaranko
-
Michael Puchniak
-
Bill Gardner
-
Tracey Epp
-
Richard Buchwald
-
Ron Greasley
-
Administrator
-
Douglas G. Ward, Q.C.
-
Brian Bowman
-
Courtney Chambers
-
Bruce King
-
newmandavidg
-
Subscribe via RSS
