A recent federal court ruling is a warning to companies that workers' non-public Facebook postings are private and uninvited employers have no right to read them.
The ruling, handed down in August, stemmed from a lawsuit filed by a paramedic against Monmouth-Ocean Hospital Service Corp. (MONOC) in New Jersey. Deborah Ehling was disciplined after posting on her Facebook wall a comment criticizing Washington, D.C., paramedics' handling of a deadly shooting at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
The U.S. District Court decision is significant because it is one of very few rulings addressing whether Facebook postings meant only for users' "friends" are protected under the federal Stored Communications Act. Passed in 1986, the act extends protection to electronic communications that are configured to be private.
"The message that we're getting here is that the courts will take very seriously the privacy interests of someone who is using social media and designates it as private communications," Robert Quackenboss, a partner in the labor employment group of the law firm Hunton & Williams, said last week.
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