Have you ever wondered whether LinkedIn connections that you have added after breakfast seminars, client parties and networking events are yours? And when you leave your employer are you entitled to take the connections with you?
Usually if there is no express agreement to the contrary the LinkedIn account would belong to the person who opened it and they would enter into the contract with LinkedIn and retain the password. The connections made would be the personal property of the account holder. This is not always the case though. In some cases the Courts could deem that the contacts belong to the employer. The Courts would consider whether the relationships have arisen through the business or outside the business.
Some employers may be savvier than others, adopting measures to increase their protection. Employers might require employees to set up specific LinkedIn accounts for work but retain the password, allowing the employer to take over the account when the employee leaves the business. Employers could make it clear that connections gained in the course of the employee’s employment are confidential information belonging to the employer and copy over the connections to the employer’s database. Another tactic could be to require employees to delete connections made during their employment on their departure.
There are complications. If the employer were to request the employee to set up an account solely for work, the employee would presumably have to be given the password to operate it. Upon the employee’s exit, the employee might get in there first and change the password before the employer. Also, if business connections had to be deleted there would always be issues about whether the connection was really a business one or in fact a social one. Supposing the employee added a potential client as a connection who they had bumped into at a networking event organised by work – but they had also met, socially, prior to then? What about meeting a referrer at a breakfast seminar who was a friend of a friend? And meeting a supplier of the employer at an event outside work? There is plenty of scope for argument.
So far there have been few cases on this topic in the Courts and employers may well have been taking a relaxed view. But don’t assume that all those LinkedIn connections are yours by right!
This article was first published by efinancialnews.
Matt Gingell is a partner at Gannons. Matt specialises in employment law and advises executives and companies on a wide range of employment issues. Matt also regularly writes for external publications.