Week in Review

This week, as we celebrated National Boss Day, many people reflected on their relationship with their boss. Technology can sometimes challenge this relationship, for example, when employees have bosses that love email and refuse to communicate or manage an employee face-to-face. Another highly debated topic is whether bosses and subordinates should “friend” each other on social networking sites. Technology impacts these boss-subordinate relationships, but also the broader relationship between a company and its employees. For instance, recent court cases examined whether an employer has sufficient control over an employee’s work-related emails sent through a personal email account to be obligated to preserve those emails when litigation strikes. Although one court found that the employer did not have possession of the emails in a personal email account, another court found that the employer had a duty to preserve those emails once it had notice of or could reasonably foresee litigation. In addition, both Facebook and Twitter made changes this week that make it more difficult for employees to “hide” online. Facebook eliminated the ability of users to hide themselves from search results, and Twitter enabled users to receive direct messages from anyone, not just followers.


Technology and the Workplace
The Truth About Bad Bosses (WSJ)
Court Finds Duty to Preserve Personal Emails of Employees (Delaware Employment Blog)
20 Twitter Resources for Job Hunters (Mashable)
Social media and the workplace and the lawsuits (Employer Handbook)
A Company's Tweets Can Help Make It Creditworthy (NPR)
Upgrade to the Apple iPhone 5s or 5c If You Travel Overseas (Forbes)

Technology and the Law
Snapchat's unopened messages can be shared with police (NBC)
Facebook Eases Privacy Rules for Teenagers (NYTimes)
Court appoints antitrust monitor in Apple e-book case (LATimes)
Disruptions: At Odds Over Privacy Challenges of Wearable Computing (NYTimes)
Google to put user names, photos, comments in ads (NBC)

There's an App for That
Facebook removes a privacy setting you might have been using (NBC)
Twitter Unveils Option to Receive Direct Messages From Anyone (ABC)
Furor Over Yahoo Mail Changes (NYTimes)
SnapHack app lets users save Snapchat photos without notifying sender (LATimes)
Google Now could be the injection of intelligence smartwatches need (Guardian)