What Every CIO Should Know About Social Media

With millions of people continuing to share online gigabytes-worth of what was once relatively private information, no business can be completely safe from the unintended and often harmful consequences of all that information being released into the wild.

Today's CIO is frequently seen as the first and last line of defense against those consequences. You are assumed to be experts on how to deal with issues that spring from the use of social networking because, then, "it's one of those computer things."

So, we've prepared a short list of just a few of the types of legal issues that accompany the proliferation of social networking.

The million-dollar question

That leads to the million-dollar question: What kinds of social media activity can be prohibited? This is one of the areas where the state of the law is most in flux. Employers who wrongfully terminate an employee over an Internet post can run afoul of state off-duty conduct laws. There are as well federal statutes, just as anti-retaliation or discrimination in accordance with Title VII, protected "concerted activity" pursuant to this agreement the National Labor Relations Act, and the whistleblower provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

Some of use may have used social media to find out more about a prospective job candidate. Nevertheless, it's important to use social media judiciously in making hiring decisions. Be aware that when conducting your due diligence on a potential hire via Internet searches and social media sites, information that wouldn't be fair game in an interview, is often plainly available about the candidate on the Internet. Such information can be the basis for a discrimination claim if that candidate isn't offered a job.

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