Your company may own your facebook profile

Employers could have grounds to demand ownership of employees' social networking profiles, such as those generated on Facebook, MySpace or Bebo, according to a recent case.

This is all due to a recent case where a journalist was forced to hand over his contact lists from facebook, after he left the company.


The argument is that if you create or use a network in work time it belongs to the employer.

"The basic law is that if you create copyright material, something you write or type into a computer, you take photographs, you do cartoons, you potentially create film, if that is created in the course of your employment then the assumption is that that belongs to your employer, so that doesn't have to be written down by your employer "

We all think this does not affect our work and if we are in touch with colleagues then this is our own business. This is not the case and you should all be very careful.

So what should you do?

1).You should keep personal and social lists separate, or even better use a totally separate site.
2).Do not use social networking sites in work time : ) yeh right...
3). If you are going to leave and continue to stay intouch with your colleagues or your boss - make sure you leave on good terms,
4). Try not to implicate your organisation in a negative manner - REMEMBER - it only take one person too google you, to see what your like as a person.
5). Your profile represents you...too much info on it and you loose privacy.

Read the whole ruling http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/QB/2007/1570.html