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You just finished your blogging policy, touched up your privacy policy, and found out that your company’s employees are now podcasting. Are companies actually preparing podcasting policies? They sure are – IBM was one of the first.
Link: I Heard That. Between Lawyers: technology culture law.
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Todd Mayover of (IP Counsel Blog fame) posts on the impact of camera phones on corporate espionage. After you read the article (and Todd’s helpful pointers), you may want to consider reviewing your company’s site access and confidentiality agreements and policies:
"Have you ever tried to enter a federal courthouse armed with a camera phone? If you have, chances are you were turned away or your camera phone was confiscated by security until you left the building. This is because some proceedings inside the courthouse may involve the sharing of information that is not intended for the general public and should not be secretly recorded.
The same should be the case for employees and visitors who have access to secure areas of your company. As camera phone technology improves year to year, and those little camera phones become more and more sophisticated, it is possible for someone to take pictures of sensitive material for use outside of your company. As companies spend more and more to develop new products, it is imperative to keep all new projects secret and to limit the potential for information leaks."
Link: IP Counsel Blog: Camera Phones And Corporate Espionage.
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With the explosion of blogging, many companies have employees that maintain personal blogs or contribute to company blogs. Companies should develop blogging policies to address issues that may arise from employee blogging (e.g., confidentiality, intellectual property, information dissemination about markets, competitors, etc.). These issues are similar to those raised by employee websites, but the benefits of blog technology make these issues more pressing. Blogs are simple to set up and can be posted to by a click of the mouse. There is no need to format HTML code, upload files or learn to use complicated software. Indeed, blogging is easier to use than most desktop applications. For these reasons, blogging is more accessible than any other Internet publishing technology developed to date.
So what should be included in a blogging policy? Lenn Pryor (Director of Platform Evangelism at Microsoft) presented Microsoft’s "semi-informal blogging policy" at a recent conference, and his thoughts can be found at BuzzMarketingWithBlogs, Susannah Gardner’s companion blog for an upcoming book on blogging for businesses.
One thing is for sure, employee blogging can lead to employee terminations – as one contract employee at Microsoft found out recently. Thus, it’s best to get a policy in place to set the ground rules before issues arise. Look forward to more on this topic from the InhouseBlog.
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looking for a sample of a “no camera phone in the work place” policy or a template
Thanks, Chip