Discussion on:

Message 1 of 1
If you're going to retain the right to terminate an employee for anything derogatory he or she says via their personal social network; then ethically and morally, you have to provide equitable compensation for using their network as a recruitment tool. Otherwise you've engaged in a theft of an intellectual property of that employee, not to mention a conflict of interests violation.

Technically, and if I remember previous cases correctly, the e-mail address book of an employee is stored as data on the company's systems and therefore is company data. They have the right to use that contact list; especially as it was created on company time using company assets. If an employee wants to sequester his or her personal or pre-existing contacts from his current employment contacts; he or she should use a 3rd party, web mail application (such as MS Hotmail, or Google GMail); and then make sure to empty the web cache on the computer.
ie8 fix

The best of ZDNet, delivered

ZDNet Newsletters

Get the best of ZDNet delivered straight to your inbox