How Text Messaging and Facebook Can Get You in Legal Trouble

It's hard to stop employees from using text messaging, Facebook and other online tools to talk about their work. But you can prepare to handle the consequences.

By
Wed, October 29, 2008

CIO — How we miss the quaint times when text was just a quick way to chat with buddies. Today, these fleeting missives, now integral to so many work lives, amount to a multimillion-dollar corporate risk. Organizations sit largely unprepared while text messages replace e-mail as the digital smoking gun.

You know how it goes: On mobile devices, employees peck out details of their private lives, remarks about colleagues and, inadvertently or not, confidential business information. Things people would never say out loud or in memos fly around in text, often memorialized in digital archives that you don't control. It's juice for a legal adversary.

Text messages about employee firings and extramarital sex recently brought down Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his chief of staff, Christine Beatty.

Last year, three police officers sued the city and the mayor for wrongful termination, claiming they were whistle-blowers who had been retaliated against for discussing possible misconduct in Kilpatrick's administration. During the case, Beatty testified that one officer, Gary Brown, "was not fired." But text messages subpoenaed from SkyTel, which provides pagers to the city, said otherwise.

"I'm sorry that we are going through this mess because of a decision that we made to fire Gary Brown," read one of Beatty's texts to Kilpatrick, with whom, as other messages revealed, she was having an affair.

The officers won the case and $8 million. The city executives lost their jobs; Beatty resigned in January and Kilpatrick in September. In October, Kilpatrick was sentenced to four months' jail time.

Corporations are just as vulnerable. When all 100 of the Fortune 100 are involved in legal proceedings, you know you probably can't avoid e-discovery at some point in your career. And when your company gets hit with a lawsuit, you'll likely have to retrieve and reveal employee text messages relevant to the case, along with other newer forms of communication, such as instant messages and the words, pictures and video from social networking sites, blogs and wikis. But the way some CIOs are managing these technologies—sometimes by not managing them at all—makes that task harder and more expensive than it should be, says Alan Brill, senior managing director at Kroll Ontrack, where he founded the computer forensics and computer security functions.

Continue Reading

What is Tech Briefcase?
TechBriefcase is a new, free service where IT Professionals can Search, Store and Share IT white papers and content like this. Learn more
Bookmark content
Speed up your research efforts with content across the web.
Search and Store
Find the white papers you need. Create folders for any topic.
View Anywhere
Open your briefcase on your iPhone, tablet or desktop. Share with colleagues.
Don't have an account yet?
Whether your data center is large or small, it faces a similar set of roadblocks to efficiency, uptime, and ROI. This white paper reveals the six most common and intractable problems facing the data center and explains how to rectify them while improving efficiency and uptime.
Innovations are changing the role procurement plays within the enterprise. SAP's Chris Salis, Global Vice President of Procurement Solutions, and Emily Rakowski, Senior Director and Head of Procurement Solutions Marketing discuss how SAP Procurement Solutions are the strategic differentiators of innovation.
In August 2011, Benny Kirsh was named VP and CIO at Infoblox, an industry-leading developer of network infrastructure automation and control solutions. With more than 25 years of experience, Kirsh is responsible for driving strategic advancements via the company's IT infrastructure and applications.
In this Quest white paper, gain a deeper understanding of all the dangers involved with privileged account ("super user") management. Learn to mitigate risks by enabling granular access control and accountability for admin or super user accounts. Read it today.
As more and more CIOs are beginning to see significant benefits from letting employees choose the device they use to get their jobs done, the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) trend is spreading. According to the Computerworld Consumerization of IT Study, about half of the 604 respondents said their organizations allow employees to do work using their own devices either away from the office or at work. Whether these devices are smart phones, tablets, or laptops that are used in the office or while working remotely, companies that embrace this trend are finding their employees are more productive and experience greater job satisfaction. What's more, enterprises can significantly reduce up front costs and allow for flexible work hours by letting employees use their device of choice anytime, from anywhere.
In this paper, we analyze the delivery of live and on-demand mobile video content. It focuses on specific ways in which organizations can follow best practices to ensure the experience of video communication is maximized for viewers, while keeping corporate networks running smoothly.
Date/Time: June 5, 2012, 11:00 a.m., EDT, 4:00 p.m. BST / 3:00 p.m. UTC

Please join us for this webcast, as Dr. Barry Devlin, Founder and Principal, 9sight Consulting, describes what operational analytics can do for your business and reviews an architectural approach that will enable you to make it a reality.
Have you been thinking about what it would take to start using virtualization? Or do you know the basics and want to find out more? No problem. This webcast is designed for anyone with little to no knowledge of virtualization technology. Attend this webcast to learn:

-A basic overview of the business value of the technology and some key capabilities that make virtualization so valuable to IT and the businesses you serve.
-The basics for creating virtual machines and the key choices that can be made along the route to deployment.
View this on demand webcast to learn if moving business communications to the cloud is right for your business. Featured industry experts DMG Consulting LLC president, Donna Fluss, Frost & Sullivan principal analyst, Michael DeSalles, and Interactive Intelligence senior vice president, Joe Staples discuss this topic and help you answer your pressing questions at the conclusion of this web event.
In this webcast, Vantage Point Performance's Michelle Vazzana will reveal how to coach your reps to better performing pipelines.
In this webcast produced by the Sales Management Association (SMA), Forrester's Scott Santucci will explore the new sales paradigm and discuss how businesses must transform their selling models into dynamic, communications-intensive systems, empowering individual sellers to define, create and deliver value to customers.
SAP Sales OnDemand is intuitive, leveraging social collaboration capabilities you already know how to use. It enables fast, effective team collaboration and account management to help you sell more effectively. Watch the video to see how!
Newsletter Sign-Up »

Receive the latest news test, reviews and trends on your favorite technology topics

Choose a newsletter
  1. View all Newsletters | Privacy Policy
Sponsored Links

High performance. Delivered. Click to see Accenture's client successes

Master the cloud with the power of convergence from HP

Connect with IT leaders redefining mobility at the Enterprise Mobile Hub

Choose New and manage one device instead of 170

Choose New for 8x the firewall and NAT performance

Check out a smart way of mobilizing your business with enterprise-ready Samsung Mobile.

Redefine your data center with HP servers.

Enhance your business with Windstream IT Solutions. Speak to someone local.

BlackBerry® Mobile Fusion. Different mobile devices. One platform.

CYBERMARYLAND | Learn Why Maryland is the Epicenter for Cybersecurity

Get Ethernet speeds from 1 Mbps to 10 Gbps - Comcast Business Class

Cognizant. Leading in Business, Application & Technology Services

Collaboration: driving better business outcomes

Gain cutting-edge insights at MIT in 2-5 day executive programs.

Click to see how Accenture has delivered high performance to clients

Complimentary Gartner Report on BYOD: Media Tablets & Beyond. View Now

Elevate storage agility and efficiency with HP 3PAR storage.

Choose New and slash the number of devices you manage

Customized information views & Twitter events at New Fulcrum Point

Splunk translates machine data into "aha" moments for IT and the business.

ManageEngine Desktop Central - Automate and Audit Your Desktop Management! Learn More...

Cloud Readiness Starts with Intel® Technology

Visit the Virtually There Learning Page to learn how to use virtualization to your competitive advantage.

Free: Hunter Muller's "The Transformational CIO."

Join us for an upcoming Microsoft 365 live online demo event.

Discover your easiest path to unified communications

Virtualizing Your Infrastructure Just Got Easier

Connect with global CIOs now at Enterprise CIO Forum

Resource Center