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Do You Own Your Social Networking Friends? Or Does Your Employer?
from the do-you-own-your-rolodex? dept
In the sales world, you're often judged on the size and quality of your "rolodex" of contacts. No one expects a salesperson jumping from one job to another to somehow "forget" everyone they know -- or to cough up their entire list of contacts to the previous company. Yet that seems to be what happened in the UK. Slashdot points us to the news of a court ruling where a guy was forced to give up his LinkedIn contact list to his former employer after he left the company to start his own business. In this case, the original company had actively encouraged its employees to make use of LinkedIn, even though it was under the individual's control, rather than the employer's.
Expect to see plenty more lawsuits like this going forward. For many users of social networks from LinkedIn to MySpace to Facebook, the connections you make blur the lines between professional and personal -- and the questions of who actually "owns" those contacts will become a legal issue that the courts will decide over and over again. Of course, the truth is that this is a silly debate. No one "owns" a contact in the first place. If the company has a rule requiring employees to hand over contacts to the company, then it should employ a CRM system which the company controls. Otherwise, reaching into a personal social networking account seems to go beyond what's reasonable.
Expect to see plenty more lawsuits like this going forward. For many users of social networks from LinkedIn to MySpace to Facebook, the connections you make blur the lines between professional and personal -- and the questions of who actually "owns" those contacts will become a legal issue that the courts will decide over and over again. Of course, the truth is that this is a silly debate. No one "owns" a contact in the first place. If the company has a rule requiring employees to hand over contacts to the company, then it should employ a CRM system which the company controls. Otherwise, reaching into a personal social networking account seems to go beyond what's reasonable.
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Reader Comments (rss)
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Contacts vs. Clients
The article indicates that the lawsuit relates to the clients who were among the contacts in the contact list.
Your contacts belong to you, but your clients belong to your employer. It is unethical and possibly illegal to take a client list when you leave your employer.
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Re: Contacts vs. Clients
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Re: Contacts vs. Clients
So is speeding, but it's done every day by the most law-abiding of citizens.
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Re: Contacts vs. Clients
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BS
This crap happens in the US too much where the courts will tell you it's "not interpreted this way" just so they can get around the Constitution; even though it's written in black and white. (Especially the whole deal about outlawing forced servitude on Amendment 13, then congress making the draft.)
People have to fight back this BS has is turning us into a socialist state.
"The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. " -Benjamin Franklin
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No more "rolodex-rule" . . .
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Re: No more "rolodex-rule" . . .
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Why work at a place like that?
One big reason to used LinkedIN is to network for jobs. Maybe it's smarter to use social networking at home with your personal email, and avoid social websites all together while at work.
In this case, it probably time for a job change anyway- the working environment is probably not good under such totalitarian rule.
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Best Bet
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Employer's perspective
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