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.
Pitblado Law launches the Whiteboard Sessions
As part of our new Brand identity and our commitment to clients, Pitblado Law has developed a number of new On-Line programs and services.
The first of these programs is the Pitblado Whiteboard Sessions – a weekly video blog on a wide array of relevant and timely legal topics. The Whiteboards are part of Pitblado Law’s continuing focus on the provision of quality information and services to the community. All of these programs can be found on the new Pitblado Law website under the PitU section.
For more information on our Whiteboard sessions, check out my video, where I outline what the Whiteboard Sessions are and what you can expect each week. We will distribute these Whiteboard Sessions through PitbLAWg, Linked In and Twitter.
Pitblado understands law is changing and we’re changing with it
We are very pleased to let you know that our firm, Pitblado Law, has just launched a new and innovative brand into the marketplace. Click here to learn more and check out our new website at Pitblado.com. You can even click here listen to our new radio ad currently running on CJOB|68. Stay tuned, there’s lots more coming!
Thanks again to the Pitblado Team for all your input and for helping to make the product even better!
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”.
The case against Big Brother at work
Here’s a good article in the Globe & Mail’s Report on Business about the thorny issue of workplace monitoring. As I’m quoted by the Globe & Mail, “I recognize employers have risks and obligations to manage data, but on the other hand going to a more Big Brother approach isn’t the answer. And the privacy commissioner and the courts would agree with that.” Read the full article here>
Separating business and personal on Facebook: Is it possible?
Accountingweb has a great article here that deals with an issue that most business professionals on Facebook these days are increasingly facing.
”If you have a Facebook account, you’ve probably faced the dilemma of whether to accept a friend request from a business associate. Declining the invitation can cause wrinkles in professional relationships, but accepting the invitation may mean that you may not be able share as freely as you’d like on Facebook.”
The article provides a detailed way that you can configure your Facebook friends lists to help in these situations.
If you know of other similar articles that can help business professionals to better manage their social media activities, please share by posting a comment below. Thanks! And thanks to my colleague, Mark Wallace, for the head’s up about the Accountingweb article.
How is your organization managing the risks associated with social media?
I was pleased to recently deliver a presentation called “The Power & Pain of Social Media” with my colleague, Adam Herstein, to the Manitoba Association of Risk and Insurance Managers. Doing the presentation made me think that it might help your organization to highlight the following previous posts… Hope they help!
- Social media: Is your organization’s head in the sand?
- Social Media and the Workplace webinar: Watch now!
- Employee monitoring in today’s workplace Adam Herstein’s excellent post called That’s just not acceptable-acceptable use policies in the workplace
Social media: Is your organization’s head in the sand?
Is your organization in the social media world?
If your answer is “no” you’re wrong. Sorry, but it was a trick question. Whether your organization admits it or not, it is in the social media world. Clients, prospective clients, employees and even competitors are almost certainly engaging in conversations about your organization on Facebook and LinkedIn. The question is whether you’re a part (or even aware) of those conversations. The second question is what are you going to do to shape those conversations, to the extent that you can?
The reality is that Canadian employees, for example, are blogging, tweeting and accessing social networking websites with increasing frequency. And the result is increased legal risks for Canadian businesses. These risks include disgruntled employees intentionally revealing trade secrets, defaming supervisors, harassing co-workers, or posting negative information about their employers’ business. There are even additional threats resulting from loyal employees who inadvertently disclose information online that runs afoul of privacy and competition laws. These threats won’t go away if your company has its head in the sand regarding social media.
One important step to dealing with and leveraging social media is to implement a social media policy within your organization. Doing so won’t address every potential headache related to social media, but it will help to manage online discussions that are occurring during and after work hours by your own employees. And since some of the greatest risks I’ve mentioned above stem from your employees, my best advice is to implement a social media policy. Key components in a social media policy should include:
- defining the scope of prohibited activities;
- clarifying to whom the policy applies;
- addressing how infringing content should be removed from social media sites;
- spelling out who, when and how monitoring of social media sites occurs; and
- advising of penalties and enforcement of the policy.
Let’s talk privacy and access to information
CJOB|680′s Geoff Currier recently asked me to participate in his live radio program called “The Nighthawk”. Geoff and callers raised a number of issues related to privacy and access to information law including the following question that Geoff asked… “Once I go on Twitter/Facebook, do I automatically surrender my privacy rights? In Vancouver wherein an alleged gang rape and some photos of the victim were posted online and distributed out there…what does our law say about that? You are standing on Portage & Main and you kiss your wife and I happen to take a photograph of that… is that an invasion of your privacy?” To hear the answer to this and other questions please listen to the live broadcast recording here>>.
Thanks to Geoff Currier and CJOB|680 for the invitation to participate in the program.
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Authors
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Mark Wallace
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Philip Watts
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Brant Harvey
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Caroline Kiva
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Adam Herstein
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Andrew Buck
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Benjamin Hecht
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Bradley Madison
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Rob Giesbrecht
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Ned Brown
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Candace Everard Grammond
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Lori Dobbie
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Darryl Antel
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Andrew Ogaranko
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Michael Puchniak
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Bill Gardner
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Tracey Epp
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Richard Buchwald
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Ron Greasley
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Administrator
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Douglas G. Ward, Q.C.
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Brian Bowman
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Courtney Chambers
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Bruce King
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newmandavidg
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