October 30, 2013 presentation on social media and confidentiality by Jonathan I. Ezor of the Touro Law Center for Innovation in Business, Law and Technology for the IP Law Committee of the Nassau County Bar Association in Mineola, NY.

1. SOCIAL MEDIA AND
CONFIDENTIALITY:
The Ease of
Intentional (and
Unintentional)
Disclosures
Prof. Jonathan I. Ezor
Touro Law Center for Innovation in Business, Law and Technology
jezor@tourolaw.edu
@ProfJonathan on Twitter
Nassau County Bar Association
Intellectual Property Law Committee
October 30, 2013

2. Confidentiality Key
to Business
• Confidentiality crucial to many business contexts
–
–
–
–
–
Due diligence
Joint ventures
Employment
Technology
Media
• Many professions have confidentiality obligations
• Law relevant as well
• Can be necessary to preserve trade secret
protection
jezor@tourolaw.edu

3. NDA:
Prohibition ≠
Prevention
• Non-disclosure agreements key tool for
preserving confidentiality
• Standalone or included in other
agreements/policy documents
• Set forth obligations for/limitations on
confidentiality
• Cannot prevent disclosure
jezor@tourolaw.edu

4. Risk Management
for Sensitive
Information
• Those sharing confidentiality information must
assess, manage risks
–
–
–
–
Selective disclosure
Redaction/anonymizing data
Access restrictions
Agreements
• Mobile devices, Internet add to concerns
jezor@tourolaw.edu

5. Social Media:
Antithesis of
Confidentiality
• Social media designed to enable, encourage
information sharing
• May be accessed via Web, mobile, even text
messages
• Brevity balanced by links, metadata
– GPS/location info
– EXIF data in photos
• Difficult to separate personal/professional,
public/private
jezor@tourolaw.edu

6. http://shankman.com/be-careful-what-youpost/
Many of my peers and I feel this is inappropriate. We
do not know the total millions of dollars FedEx
Corporation pays Ketchum annually for the valuable
and important work your company does for us
around the globe. We are confident however, it is
enough to expect a greater level of respect and
awareness from someone in your position as a vice
president at a major global player in your industry. A
hazard of social networking is people will read what
you write.

8. The visitor had recently learned that Tocquigny was wooing
one of his company's competitors—by seeing a message that
one of Tocquigny's employees had posted to Twitter. "It took
me by surprise," says Tocquigny. "I realized that we needed
to be more cautious about what we throw out there in to the
universe."

9. Apple's code of silence extends to
140-character messages on the
microblogging site Twitter. During an
in-person meeting with Apple
representatives in February, Wall
Street Journal Deputy Managing Editor
Alan Murray posted a short message
to Twitter that announced he was
using the device. The tweet was later
removed from the site.

19. Risk Management
Approaches for
Social Media
• Policies
• Training
– Tools
– Best practices
• Industry-specific requirements
• Monitoring
– Self
– Others
• Insurance
jezor@tourolaw.edu

20. QUESTIONS?
jezor@tourolaw.edu