Recruiters’ encouragement to their staff to use social and professional networking sites for work purposes could pose legal risks.  At a recent Blake Lapthorn and APSCo seminar with Selwyn Bloch QC, recruiters were advised of  practical steps that an employer could take to minimise potential risks.
 
It is difficult to monitor an employee’s online activity, the legal experts agreed.  Unfortunately it is all too easy for an employee to build up contacts and upload information as a preliminary step to setting up in competition.  

Sensitive business information can be shared with competitors and third parties and confidential information that is uploaded into a public domain will lose its element of confidentiality, making it hard for an employer to get legal protection for its databases.
 
Unfortunately the courts have not yet had to decide whether an individual’s networking contacts belong to the employer or the individual.  With the rise in networking activity it is to be hoped that the position will be clarified soon.
 
There is clearly a fine line between professional networking for business purposes and private social networking whilst at work, the legal experts said.  Any measures taken by an employer that encroach too far into an individual’s right to privacy are likely to be unenforceable. However, the legal experts offered some practical tips for all employers:
 

• have a clear IT policy that includes use of networking sites and monitor your employees to ensure compliance (you will need to inform them, and keep the monitoring to reasonable levels)
• ensure employees keep their social and professional networking separate and insist they use a work email address for professional networking
• require employees to delete business contacts from their networking accounts when they leave your employment

have clearly drafted specific restrictive covenants properly covering candidate data (most current covenants fail properly to protect this data).