In this rapidly evolving information age in which we live, with boundless forms of social media readily accessible with one click of the mouse, employees of all different generations have begun to jump on the Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter bandwagons.  And, the sophisticated privacy settings on these social networking sites have put us at ease in doing so, knowing that we can tightly control and filter the degree of public access to our personal information. 

  However, before you update your status, upload that next photo, or make that next post, you should know that the courts are becoming more attuned to the all-encompassing relevance of social media technology in our daily lives, and they are adapting the principles of law accordingly, making these forms of social media fair game when it comes to discoverable evidence in employment law cases.

In a sexual harassment case filed earlier this summer, EEOC v. Simply Storage Management LLC, et. al., a District Court for the Southern District of Indiana ruled that employees suing for sexual harassment can be forced to turn over the content on their Facebook and MySpace pages as discoverable evidence where they allege damages for emotional distress, even if those pages are designated as “private” or “locked.”  The District Court reasoned that these forms of social media are relevant to determining whether emotional distress occurred, when it occurred, and to what degree it occurred.

Although the District Court conceded that broad discovery of a plaintiff employee’s social networking site content could reveal highly private and embarrassing information; the Court observed that “this is the inevitable result of alleging these sorts of injuries [for emotional distress].”  The District Court also noted that privacy concerns are outweighed by the fact that information from social networking sites are already shared with at least one other person through private messages or a larger number of people through postings: “‘[a]s one judge observed, Facebook is not used as a means by which account holders carry on monologues with themselves.’” 

 To view the complete decision of EEOC v. Simply Storage Management LLC, et. al., visit http://www.ediscoverylaw.com/uploads/file/Simply%20Storage.pdf  
 

Blog entry written by:

Kendra Kutko
Law Clerk
The Case Law Firm, LLC

(312) 920-0400
www.thecaselawfirm.com