Privacy Rights and Asking an Employee to Give You Their Facebook Password

By Eric B. Meyer

A few weeks ago, I wrote about how the Maryland Department of Corrections was facing heat from the ACLU for requiring job applicants to divulge their Facebook passwords. It seems that the Department of Corrections has listened (not to me, but to the ACLU).

The ACLU’s statement

Below are sections of the ACLU’s response to the Maryland Department of Corrections’s decision to no longer require Facebook passwords from job applicants as condition of employment.

The government should not ask people to “volunteer” access to their private, personal communications. If the term “chilling effect” describes anything, it describes this. Few job applicants, eager to please a prospective employer, are going to feel genuinely free to decline to give up their information. Under the DOC’s reasoning, it would be equally permissible (and logical) for them to ask that job applicants volunteer to have the DOC monitor all of their calls, read all of their e-mail, look at all of their letters, and search their houses on demand. The fact that no employer would think of “asking” that strongly indicates how improper it is, and how improper this is.”

via tlnt.com

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7 Best Practices For Hospitals and Social Media | Hospital Financial and Business News

Kevin Troutman is a partner at Fisher & Phillips LLP in Houston and serves as the chair of the firm's Healthcare Practice Group. Additionally, Mr. Troutman has more than 17 years experience in healthcare management positions, once serving as the senior HR manager for 22 hospitals in five states. Mr. Troutman outlined seven best practices for hospitals to consider regarding social media and hospital employees.

1. Update your policy to include social media. Roughly one-third of employers have enacted policies that address employees' use of social media sites, says Mr. Troutman. While this number is growing, employers still aren't catching on as quickly as expected, especially since sites such as Facebook or Twitter will never phase out but only evolve. "Hospitals need to address social media — they can't just proceed as though they don't exist," says Mr. Troutman. He said most hospitals already have strong confidentiality policies in place, but these need to be amended to include specific parameters for social media use.

2. Decide how much restriction employees will face while at work. Some hospitals have enacted prohibited social media policies for employees, while others have restricted their use all together. While this decision may vary from hospital-to-hospital depending on the work environment, Mr. Troutman shares some general advice. "Encourage employees to minimize the use of personal websites or personal activity while they are on work time. You have to recognize that, once in a while, employees will need to send a personal e-mail. But generally, the policy should be this: while at work, you do work. "

3. Train supervisors so they don't inadvertently create problems. In the ambiguous realm of friending, private messages and wall posts, supervisors need to anticipate potential problems regardless of their intention. For instance, a supervisor sending a friend request to a lower level employee could set up potential claims of fraternization, harassment, or — in extreme cases — stalking. Mr. Troutman shared an instance where a supervisor signed into a Facebook account under another username to look up an employee's social media activity, which could be considered defrauding the employee or invading his/her privacy.

via beckershospitalreview.com

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Hospitals should not ban access to social media

by Howard Luks, MD

“Instead of focusing on treating him, an employee said, St. Mary nurses and other hospital staff did the unthinkable: They snapped photos of the dying man and posted them on Facebook.”

What can you say about an article like this? I bet there is not a single physician or nurse who are not reasonably conversant about the basic tenets of the health care privacy laws under which they practice.

Stupid is as stupid does. Perhaps more appropriately, stupidity is demonstrated by the actions of the one — or in the case, the many.

It still amazes me that people do not realize what the implication of hitting the “Enter” or “Post” or “Like” button is in our connected global society. In the health care space it is obvious that there are still a handful of doctors, nurses, orderlies, and ancillary providers who still don’t get it.

But what should an institution’s policy be? Ban access on the network? Perhaps naive, but my answer to that is a resounding no. Most people still have smart phones with WiFi or 3G access and can just as easily post to Facebook or Twitter and I doubt that the hospital’s liability is diminished.

Hospitals need to embrace social media, develop a comprehensive social media engagement policy, educate their staff, set acceptable parameters, track or monitor usage, remain vigilant and continue with the education process in perpetuity as social media is fluid and evolving and changing everyday.

Education, clarity, transparency and engagement is the key.  Not banning access.

Howard Luks is an orthopedic surgeon who blogs at The Orthopedic Posterous.

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• Doctors who are not on Facebook, Twitter and blogs risk becoming irrelevant; my USA Today op-ed

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via kevinmd.com

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