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Archive for the ‘Privacy and Security’ Category

Another example of how Facebook comments can jeopardize an employee’s job

Friday, November 11th, 2011

A first-grade teacher in New Jersey could lose her job following a questionable Facebook post. While this story comes out of the US, the lessons can apply to workplaces located in Canada.

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Tags: consistent monitoring and enforcement of policy, context, facebook, Facebook firing, inexusable, lose her job, off-duty posting on Facebook, online comments, questionable Facebook post, social media, social media policy, stuck by a student, teacher, terminated
Posted in Human Resources, Privacy and Security | Make a Comment »

Sick days or personal days?

Thursday, November 3rd, 2011

Employers are often at a loss as to how to ensure employees who take sick days are really sick and not simply abusing the system. They are often scared to ask for doctor’s notes, but also scared that if they don’t, the abuse will become rampant. I often encourage employers to consider abandoning the notion of sick days altogether, and simply provide a fixed number of “personal days”, which eliminates the implicit or explicit requirement that an individual be sick in order to have time off.

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Tags: Absenteeism, abusing sick days, act of bad faith, Disability, discrimination, doctor's note, duty to accommodate, employment law, Honda v. Keays, managing absenteeism, personal days, policies and procedures, sick days, sick leave policy, time off to take care of personal responsibilities, vacation
Posted in Employee Relations, Employment Standards, Health and Safety, Human Resources, Privacy and Security | 3 Comments »

Personal information online: new tools, old responsibilities

Monday, October 24th, 2011

Sometimes, technology creates new ways to exploit information faster than the law and business can keep up. The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada is trying to make sure that doesn’t happen in the case of behavioural advertising. Last year, the Privacy Commissioner conducted consultations on the new ways that organizations are collecting and using customers’ personal information, and prepared its Report on the 2010 Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada’s Consultations on Online Tracking, Profiling and Targeting, and Cloud Computing.

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Tags: behavioural advertising, marketing, mobile technology, Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner, oipc, privacy, Privacy Commissioner, profiling, targeting, technology, tracking
Posted in Employee Relations, Human Resources, Privacy and Security | Make a Comment »

What HR professionals need to know about ‘kidnap and ransom’ insurance

Tuesday, October 18th, 2011

Organizations that send employees to destinations with a high risk of kidnapping should seriously contemplate kidnap and ransom (K&R) insurance. K&R insurance protects individuals and corporations, typically covering kidnapping, extortion, wrongful detention and hijacking. K&R policies may also indemnify personal accident losses caused by kidnapping, and will generally cover the fees and expenses of crisis management consultants.

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Tags: crisis management, employment law, extortion, hijacking, hostage, insurance, kidnap & ransom insurance, kidnapping, post-captivity support, risk management, wrongful detention
Posted in Health and Safety, Human Resources, Privacy and Security | Make a Comment »

Proposed privacy changes in British Columbia

Friday, October 14th, 2011

The Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Amendment Act, 2011 (Bill 3) was introduced in the British Columbia legislature on October 4, 2011. The Bill aims to facilitate digitization, compiling, sharing and combining of personal data across government ministries (including the Ministry of Labour, Citizens’ Services and Open Government). Individuals would be able to access government services with a secure digital identification card and personal ID number.

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Tags: bill 3, combine personal data across ministries, data linking, digital identification, FOIPP, Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, Ministry of Labour, open government, personal data, personal information, Privacy Commissioner, privacy concerns
Posted in Human Resources, Privacy and Security | Make a Comment »

Government anti-spam website offers tips for businesses, organizations and individuals awaiting regulations

Monday, September 19th, 2011

The federal government has introduced a website dedicated to its new anti-spam law, the Electronic Commerce Protection Act. The website, Fightspam.gc.ca, describes the provisions of the law and its purposes, and outlines how organizations and individuals can make sure they abide by the law and protect themselves from spam and other electronic threats.

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Tags: address harvesting, altering transmission data, Anti-spam bill, commercial electronic messages, Criminal Code of Canada, Electronic Commerce Protection Act, false representation, fightspam.gc.ca, malware, misleading representation, spam, spyware
Posted in Human Resources, Privacy and Security | Make a Comment »

Slaw: Banning teachers from communicating with their students on social media

Thursday, September 15th, 2011

In the age of social media like Facebook and Twitter, school administrators are asking whether such electronic communication is appropriate between students and teachers. They are wondering where boundaries for such communication should be placed. Many school boards are choosing a strict path, forbidding or restricting any communication via social media between students and teachers.

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Tags: Amy Hestir Student Protection Act, Banning teachers from communicating with their students, Conduct and behaviour in the workplace, education, electronic communication, Employee code of conduct, employment law, facebook, one-on-one means of communication, school boards, social media, twitter
Posted in Employee Relations, Human Resources, Privacy and Security | Make a Comment »

Facebook, privacy and the workplace

Monday, August 22nd, 2011

You might have heard about the case in which two car dealership workers were fired for cause after they wrote offensive and harassing messages on Facebook about their employer and managers.

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Tags: facebook, Facebook firing, policy, privacy, social media, social media policy, social networking, termination, workplace harassment
Posted in Human Resources, Human Rights, Privacy and Security | Make a Comment »

Slaw: Using employee (patient) health information in human resources investigation

Thursday, August 11th, 2011

The Alberta Information and Privacy Commissioner recently confirmed that Alberta Health Services (AHS) breached the rights of one of its employees by intentionally using information from his addiction counselling against him during a human resources investigation. The breach of the employee’s personal health information clearly contravened the Health Information Act (HIA).

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Tags: addiction counselling, Alberta, Alberta Health Services, Data breach, Disability, disclosure of personal information, employment law, health information, human resources investigation, Information and Privacy Commissioner, personal health information, personal information
Posted in Human Resources, Privacy and Security | Make a Comment »

Can employers protect business contacts acquired by employees’ use of social media?

Friday, July 15th, 2011

Consider this: you have encouraged your employee to use online social media during work time to build professional contacts to grow your business. The employee goes ahead and invests time during the workday visiting sites like Linkedin, Twitter and Facebook. This strategy proves to be positive; the contacts have been part of the business growth you have experienced. Then, your employee wants to leave the company and move on to another job. Can you, as the employer, ask for the contact information the employee accumulated during his or her employment?

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Tags: business opportunities, Emails, employment contract, employment law, employment relationship, facebook, in the course of employment, LinkedIn, networking, non-disclosure, non-solicitation, personal versus work, professional contacts, restrictive covenants, social media, social media portability, social media sites, social networking, twitter, work-related
Posted in Employee Relations, Human Resources, Privacy and Security | Make a Comment »

Employer and insurer both breached privacy of employee

Wednesday, June 29th, 2011

The Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta has determined that an employer violated the Personal Information Protection Act and the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act when it disclosed more information than necessary to determine the employee’s eligibility for disability benefits, and that the group insurance provider used the information without consent.

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Tags: Alberta, Breach of privacy, collecting medical information, consent, Disability benefits, Disclosing medical information, eligibility for disability benefits, employment law, Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, group insurance, Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner, oipc, personal information, Personal Information Protection Act, using medical information, workers’ compensation, workplace injury
Posted in Human Resources, Privacy and Security | Make a Comment »

Workplace violence and privacy: what’s the connection?

Tuesday, June 28th, 2011

So here’s a question to ask yourself—what are your legal obligations under Ontario law when you see an online photo of your worker committing violent acts?

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Tags: 12th Annual Ontario Employment Law Conference, Bill 168, employment law, facebook, harassment, health and safety, Kelly McDermott, occupational health and safety act, OH&S, OHSA, ontario, policies and procedures, Rioting, social media, Stanley Cup playoffs, Stringer Brisbin Humphrey, termination, twitter, workplace harassment, workplace violence, wrongful dismissal
Posted in Conferences, Health and Safety, Human Resources, Privacy and Security | Make a Comment »

A brief understanding of Internet defamation or cyber-libel

Tuesday, June 14th, 2011

Internet communication through social networking (or social media), such as Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace and Twitter, is fast becoming the most popular mode of communication in the 21st century, and has facilitated freedom of expression and speech, globalization of information and even popular revolutions. Many people enjoy posting their personal views, opinions and musings on blogs, chat rooms, newspaper and magazine articles, and other forums on all topics—artistic, philosophical, educational, social, political and legal.

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Tags: Centre for Constitutional Studies, common law tort, cyber-libel, defamation, defamation law, defamation of character, defamatory statement, employment law, facebook, Internet, Internet communication, internet defamation, law, libel, online, slander, social media, social networking, twitter
Posted in Employee Relations, Human Resources, Privacy and Security | 3 Comments »

Slaw: Disgruntled former worker who hijacked network must pay city $1,485,791

Thursday, June 2nd, 2011

In a recent survey of 500 information technology and data security workers, 40 percent said they could easily use their knowledge of encryption keys, shared passwords, weak controls and loopholes in data security programs to make off with information, or hold their organization’s data hostage. And 31 percent said that, even if they no longer worked for the company, with their knowledge of the systems they could access encryption keys and authorization codes and hack in remotely to snoop, secretly alter files or shut down the data system.

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Tags: administrative passwords to the network, data security, Digital security firm, disgruntled former employees, employment law, encryption keys, IT department, IT employee, network, network security practices, poor management, risk management, sensitive data, technology, terminations, Venafi
Posted in Human Resources, Privacy and Security | Make a Comment »

Social networking and Internet abuse in the workplace – Learn the latest

Wednesday, May 18th, 2011

We’ve written plenty on First Reference Talks about the significant effects—both negative and positive—that online social networking can have on workplaces. Whether its Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, news or entertainment blogs or what-have-you, employees are using social media, and increasingly they’re doing it on your time. Employers should be aware of the potential value they can derive from social media, as well as the potential risks.

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Tags: blogs, communication, defamation, employment law, facebook, harassment, Internet, internet policies, LinkedIn, morale, Network Security, Ontario Employment Law Conference, performance management, productivity, security, social media, social networking, social networking policies, Stringer Brisbin Humphrey, termination, time theft, twitter, YouTube
Posted in Conferences, Human Resources, Privacy and Security | Make a Comment »

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