Protecting business IP and data assets - social media at work

IN BRIEF

Social media tools like LinkedIn can facilitate the portability of customer information from one employer to the next, putting the spotlight on traditional thinking around employee obligations in respect of confidential information. In this piece, Tim Hemingway looks at a recent UK decision which, amongst other things, had to deal with this very conundrum.

The relative novelty of social media as a business tool has so far provided us with little case law guidance on how these new media are, inadvertently or otherwise, potentially changing the character of one of the classic species of business confidential information, the client list, especially when employees decide to move from one employer to another.