Social Media Issue
We live in an interesting
time when privacy rights are championed alongside an unprecedented
voluntary willingness of people to share their most intimate and
superfluous life details with the world, even in places such as our
website. While apparently benign on the surface, the dangers of
unrestrained public disclosure of sensitive information is beginning
to surface.
Key social media players
are being sued for unauthorized or abusive use/misuse of personal
information. Failure to protect and warn are likely going to be
focal factors. Lawsuits are filed seeking damages for statements
held to be responsible for people's death or suicide. Bloggers
presuming to operate under an unfettered freedom of speech or greater
latitude offered to members of the press are losing civil cases for
defamation, slander, libel, and so on.
As social media rapidly
advances to allow more technologically sophisticated and easy
dissemination, the simultaneous fallout of revelation without
boundaries is mounting. Thus, a sober approach to the benefits of
social media, while sidestepping the perils of imprudent disclosure,
can facilitate an enjoyable online experience, without the
consequences of excess, in settings such as our own website.
Presence/Scope of Social Media
You should assume that
social media is in use on our website. A simple click of a button to
endorse a person, product, or service is building a cumulative
profile about you, which you should always assume can be discovered
by others. Attempting to share a website with someone, whether by
direct press of a button or else by email forwarding facilitated on a
website, you should assume that this may not stop with the intended
recipient, and that this can generate information about you that
could be seen by a veritable infinite number of people. Such a
domino effect could initiate right here on our website.
Something as simple as a
blog comment provides the opportunity for knee-jerk reactions that
can become public and may not truly represent a position (at least in
strength or severity) that you might hold after a period of more
reasoned contemplation. You should also note that the ease of
accessing one site through the login credentials of another, or the
use of a global login for access to multiple sites can accumulate a
dossier on you and your online behavior that may reveal more
information to unintended parties than you might realize or want.
Any or all of these features could exist on our website at one time
or another.
These few examples
illustrate some possible ways that social media can exist, though it
is not an exhaustive list and new technologies will render this list
outdated quickly. The objective is to realize the reach of social
media, its widespread presence on websites in various forms
(including this website), and develop a responsible approach to using
it.
Protecting Others
You should recognize the
fact that divulgences made in and on social media platforms on this
website and others are rarely constrained just to you. Disclosures
are commonly made about group matters that necessarily affect and
impact other people. Other disclosures are expressly about third
parties, sometimes with little discretion. What can appear funny in
one moment can be tragic in the next. And a subtle "public"
retaliation can have lifetime repercussions.
Ideal use of social media
on our website would confine your disclosures primarily to matters
pertaining to you, not others. If in doubt, it's best to err on the
side of non-disclosure. It's doubtful the disclosure is so
meaningful that it cannot be offset by the precaution of acting to
protect the best interests of someone who is involuntarily being
exposed by your decision to disclose something on our website (or
another).
Protecting Yourself
You should likewise pause
to consider the long-term effects of a split-second decision to
publicly share private information about yourself on our website.
Opinions, likes, dislikes, preferences, and otherwise can change.
Openly divulging perspectives that you hold today, may conflict with
your developing views into the futures. Yet, the "new you"
will always stand juxtaposed against the prior declarations you made
that are now concretized as part of your public profile. While the
contents of your breakfast may hold little long-term impact, other
data likewise readily shared can have consequences that could
conceivably impact your ability to obtain certain employment or
hinder other life experiences and ambitions.
As with sharing
information about other people, extreme caution should be used before
revealing information about yourself. If in doubt, it's likely best
not to do it. The short term gain, if any, could readily be
outweighed by later consequences. Finally, you should note that we
are not responsible for removing content once shared, and we may not
be able to do so.
Restrictions on Use of Social Media Data
You, as a visitor to our
website, are not permitted to "mine" social media or other
platforms contained herein for personal information related to
others. Even where people have publicly displayed data, you should
not construe that as though you have the liberty to capture,
reproduce, or reuse that information. Any use of social media or
related platforms on our website are for interactive use only,
relevant only during the website visit.
Accuracy of Social Media Data
As any social media
platform is built on user-generated content, you should consider this
fact in seeking to determine the authenticity of anything you read.
We are not responsible for verifying any user-generated content for
accuracy. A best practices policy would be to view all such content
as strictly opinion, not fact.
Potential Issues of Liability
You should also be
mindful of the fact that your words could trigger liability for harm
caused to others. While you have the right to free speech, you do
not have the right to damage other people. Under basic principles of
tort law, you are always responsible, personally, for situations
where either:
1. you were required to
act, but did not (i.e. - some "duty of care")
2. your were required to
refrain from acting, but did not (i.e. - slander, defamation, etc.)
These "sins of
omission and commission" could cause problems for you,
irrespective of whether you assert you are conducting business under
the guise of one or more business entities. Illegal and unethical
conduct, when done in the name of a corporation or LLC, is still
illegal and unethical conduct. As it is rarely part of a business
plan to engage in illegal and unethical conduct, you are doubtfully
operating in any official capacity, but rather, perhaps, leveraging
that capacity to effectuate personal wrongdoing. You should consult
a licensed attorney if you wish legal advice as to the (potential)
ramification of your situation or legal problems stemming from this
website or another.
CHANGE NOTICE:
As with any of our administrative and legal notice pages, the
contents of this page can and will change over time. Accordingly,
this page could read differently as of your very next visit. These
changes are necessitated, and carried out, in order to protect you
and our website. If this page is important to you, you should check
back frequently as no other notice of changed content will be
provided either before or after the change takes effect.
COPYRIGHT WARNING:
The legal notices and administrative pages on this website, including
this one, have been diligently drafted by an attorney. We have paid
to license the use of these legal notices and administrative pages
for your protection and ours. This material may not be used in any
way for any reason and unauthorized use is policed via Copyscape to
detect violators.
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