Uncovering a Line in the Sand: Employee Social Media Use and the NLRA
- If an employee calls his supervisor a “nasty motherf[**]ker” on Facebook, would the employee lose the protection that he would otherwise enjoy under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA)? Probably not, according to National Labor Relations Board (NRLB) decisions like Pier Sixty LLC. In... ›
- - Privacy
Website Operators Await Final Guidance Regarding Compliance With California’s “Do-Not-Track” Disclosure Requirements
By: Julie O'Neill
Even with the publication of draft “best practices” by the California Attorney General (AG), website operators remain uncertain as to their obligations under the new do-not-track disclosure requirements of the state’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“CalOPPA”), which took effect on January 1, 2014. The... › Refining the First Amendment Status of Social Media Activity by Government Employees
By: Aaron P. Rubin
The Supreme Court’s 1968 decision in Pickering v. Board of Education allows governmental employers, including law enforcement agencies, to fire or discipline employees for disrupting operations with excessive complaining, but it prohibits governmental employers from firing or disciplining an employee for speaking out on... ›FFIEC Issues Final Guidance on Social Media Usage by Financial Institutions
By: Nathan D. Taylor
On December 11, 2013, the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) issued final guidance for financial institutions relating to their use of social media (the “Guidance”). With its release, the FFIEC adopts its January 2013 proposed guidance in substantially the same form. ( Socially... ›Hot Off the Press – New Issue of the Socially Aware Newsletter
The latest issue of our Socially Aware newsletter is now available. In this issue, we explore legal concerns raised by Google Glass; we provide an overview of the growing body of case law addressing ownership of business-related social media accounts; we take a look at... ›German Court Finds 25 Provisions in Google’s Online Terms of Use and Privacy Policy to Be Unenforceable
In November 2013, the Berlin District Court ruled that all of the 25 provisions in Google’s online terms of use and privacy policy that had been challenged by the German Federation of Consumer Associations (VZBV) are unenforceable. In reaching its decision, the court found... ›FTC Expands Reach on Conspicuousness of Privacy Disclosures in Settlement with Android Flashlight App
An FTC settlement with a mobile app over its privacy disclosures alleged to be deceptive may seem to be run-of-the-mill. After all, the FTC has been settling cases for years with companies whose data collection and use practices are allegedly not consistent with the... ›Two Circuits Address the First Amendment Status of Facebook Activity
Two recent U.S. appellate court decisions have clarified the extent to which the First Amendment protects the social media activities of government employees. In Gresham v. City of Atlanta , the Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit found that an individual’s First Amendment... ›Potential Limitations Placed on Unilateral Right to Modify Terms of Use
By: Jessica Kaufman
Contractual provisions giving a website operator the unilateral right to change its end user terms of service are ubiquitous and appear in the online terms of many major social media sites and other websites, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Google. Although amendments to terms... ›Mobile Apps: No Surprises, Please
From our sister blog, MoFo Tech : Widely applicable rules regarding consumer privacy disclosures in our increasingly mobile world are only now emerging. Government agencies, individual states, and professional associations are all weighing in on how mobile app developers should disclose how they collect,... ›