Social media accounts are “property” you should own them!
January 5th, 2012 @ admin
Companies who have created marketing strategies which includes Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Twitter should create special “ad account” and assign them to employees. The courts are leaning towards assigning the valuable status of “property” to them. This means you can buy and sell them and even devise them to your children.
It is reckless for companies to let employees conduct marketing and other business through social media (e.g., Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Twitter) using individual accounts held in their own names. Three recent cases demonstrate why:
• When a marketing employee was out on an extended medical leave, the employer accessed her Facebook and Twitter accounts to send marketing messages to clients and prospects. The employee sued the company under the “Computer Fraud and Abuse Act” for illegally accessing her personal accounts without permission. Maremount v. Susan Fredman Design Group.
• A former employee refused to turn over control of a Twitter account used in business. The court held that social media accounts may constitute a form of property that is protectable by the employer. Phonedog v. Kravitz.
• A departing employee and her former employer disagreed as to who “owned” a LinkedIn account. TEKsystems v. Horizontal Integration.
In addition to these cases, ownership and control of social media accounts is increasingly becoming an issue in mergers & acquisitions (M&A) due diligence and company valuation for online businesses.
The legal solution: Make it clear that “You” or “Your” company owns the social media accounts used to conduct business, and that company business should be done only with these company-owned accounts.
Here is an effective way to accomplishing this objective:
• Create social media accounts and have the employee use them exclusively for your business.
• You should have a copy of the account login and password. If possible, the user profile should indicate that this is a (your)/company-owned account.
• The company account should be used for business-only and not any personal / family / social messaging.
Category : Blog
