Susan Gross Sholinsky, a Member of the Firm in the Labor and Employment practice, in the New York office, was quoted in an article titled "LinkedIn Row Shows Employers Need Social Media Policies." (Read the full version — subscription required.)

Following is an excerpt:

A banking education company that took over a former employee's LinkedIn account after firing her has defeated claims that it violated anti-hacking and trademark laws, but the litigation underscores the need for employers to put written policies in place to avoid disputes over social media account ownership, attorneys said Tuesday.

However, the situation does get more complicated when an employee is posting to his or her own social media account, attorneys say.

"In this situation, the employer may be best served by a confidentiality agreement prohibiting employees from disclosing trade secrets and proprietary information, which, in some businesses, could include the identity of customers and could form the basis for prohibiting employees from, for example, 'friending' or 'Linking In' with company clients," Susan Gross Sholinsky said.

And whatever kind of agreement the employer has established to protect its social media accounts, it should remind employees upon their termination of the terms of the agreement and how those terms will play out in practice, Sholinsky said.

Jump to Page

Privacy Preference Center

When you visit any website, it may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. This information might be about you, your preferences or your device and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to. The information does not usually directly identify you, but it can give you a more personalized web experience. Because we respect your right to privacy, you can choose not to allow some types of cookies. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings. However, blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable information.

Performance Cookies

These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance.