Social Media Contacts Created in the Course of Employment

Barry Walsh, Partner at McDowell Purcell, explores the issue of who owns social media contacts created in the course of employment.

At a recent breakfast meeting, Barry identified social media contact ownership as an issue of increasing concern for many employers due to the risks regarding breach of confidentiality and restrictive covenants through the use of social media.

Ownership of social media contacts is not regulated by law and can be factually complicated, especially where many employees come to their employer with long established existing business-focused social media accounts such as LinkedIn and then add their new employer’s logo to assist creating new contacts which are then