By Nishant Ahlawat
The trends and facts
As per a report published in India Today [i]Indian
Internet users will surpass the number in the US by the end of this year and
around 500 million people will be online by 2018, as per Rajan Anandan, managing director,
Google India.
Going by the statistics of various social media platforms like
Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and Pinterest etc. legal exposure seems to increase
every second for internet users. The infographic[ii]
below covers all the latest Social Media facts, figures, numbers and statistics
of 2014. Some of the mind-blowing facts are mentioned here:
75% of the engagement on a Facebook post happens in the
first 5 hours.
53% of interaction between Google+ user and a brand is
positive.
44% of users on Twitter have never sent a tweet!
84% of women and 50% of men stay active on Pinterest.
More than 2 users sign-up for LinkedIn every second.
23% of teens consider Instagram as their favourite social
network.
Weekends are the most popular time to share Vines.
Number of snaps sent per day on SnapChat is 400 Million.
(Yeah! that’s true)
40% of YouTube traffic comes from mobile.
B2B marketers using blogs generate 67% more leads. Check out
more about lead generation through Social Media.
From legal perspective:
With such promising trends one
thing seems very clear and substantially established, that internet is here to
stay. Steep rise in smart phones and mobile internet users further supports
this trend. As a user you might be well aware –read about features and
functionality of all such social media /internet platforms that you use. But
have you ever thought about how many legal rights and responsibilities you exercise
with every click you make over internet or how much legal exposure you might
attract with a very basic and ignorant act of yours. Such exposure to liabilities
could be beyond your imaginations.
Based on general trends of
internet usage following are some of the legal issues that a user may face:
1.
Sending
unsolicited messages and friend requests to females-With amendment in
Indian Penal Code as per new section 354 D even a basic act of sending message
or trying to contact a female over internet /social media can call for security
personnel at your door step. What earlier used to be an act of Romeos to
convince their Juliets can surely lead you to jail. As per the said provision to
follow a woman and contact, or attempt to contact such woman to foster personal
interaction repeatedly despite a clear indication of disinterest by such woman;
or monitor the use by a woman of the internet, email or any other form of
electronic communication you may be punishable with an Imprisonment for not
less than one year but which may extend to three years, and shall also be
liable to fine. There are exceptions to this section which include such act
being in course of preventing or detecting a crime authorized by State or in
compliance of certain law or was reasonable and justified.
2.
Unauthorized
use of copyrighted-protected
works - You like to play latest tracks and movies available on internet
that too for free, think again! It seems quite trendy and simple but carrying
any such pirated media stored on your mobile devices, storage devices, laptops
or discs can lead you to jail. Copyright-protected works, such as text, videos,
music, photographs, and source code, are often copied from another location and
used on a social media website without the authorization of the content owner. Ideal
way is to seek permission before using material that appears to be a copyright-protected
work. In some cases you may be charged for a license fee, but that fee will
certainly be less costly than an infringement lawsuit. Some content, though, is
available for public use without express permission, such as open source code
but it may also require you to give credit of the original work to the content
author, so read all license terms and conditions carefully.
3.
Unauthorized
use of Trademarks- Unauthorized
use of third party trademarks on a social media- internet site may lead to
legal liability for trademark infringement, dilution or unfair competition. In
some circumstances, it may be permitted as “fair use” to refer to a company and
its product or service in a product review, blog, or status posting, it is
barred or restricted to use the trademarks of others to create a false
impression of endorsement, affiliation or sponsorship. In-fact websites such as
Google and Facebook have sophisticated infringement reporting policies whereby
a trademark owner can prevent another party from adopting its mark as a
username or the like.
4.
Disclosure
of Confidential Information-
Unintentionally or ignorantly confidential information, such as trade secrets,
may be disclosed by an employee, a consultant or other party with knowledge on
popular social media websites or via blogs, chat rooms, and anonymous blog
comments. Such disclosure of trade secrets, in particular, can result in the
loss of intellectual property rights in the confidential materials. In
addition, some websites purport to claim ownership of user posted information,
such as comments to a story. Ideally employers should also be pro-active in
crafting effective and proper policies to take control of employee usage and minimize
losses with such exposures.
5.
Defamation
Issues – Dynamic and real time expression is something that makes social
media attractive and information sharing swift, however it has another perspective
to it. Any such expression made or shared without identifying its correctness
and base can also lead to criminal and civil liabilities. Prosecution under
Information Technology Act based on social media posts is a controversial topic
of Indian legal debates. Best practices is to avoid making or sharing any statement
that could be defamatory.
6.
E-Discovery
- While the rules and practices of investigations and following litigation
generally lag behind the actual technology employed, discoverable information
in electronic form beyond the usual emails and scanned documents such as tweets
and Facebook posts and likes are an integral part of evidence in today’s investigations.
While these messages are often shorter than traditional emails, they create
problems precisely because they are shorter and thus require more explanation.
Companies with electronic document retention policies must ensure that these
communications are also explicitly included as corporate property.
7.
Jobs and Employment
-HR departments of companies review the Facebook, LinkedIn, and other
social media pages of both job candidates and current employees. While this
practice can be useful to help make hiring decisions, companies must ensure
that their hiring and retention practices do not unlawfully discriminate based on
information available through such candidates’ and employees’ social media
pages. In addition, professional social media sites such as LinkedIn offer the
opportunity for people to write recommendations for others in their networks.
Any such recommendation must be thought after for avoiding any future
liabilities or issues such as firing an employee while you have given him/her a
positive recommendation on social media.
8.
Exposure
of Privacy and Personal information – Personal privacy is an integral part
of right to life under the constitution of India. While there are various
professions such as that of a medical, legal professionals or service providers
who have direct access to very personal information of their patients/clients
and customers. Even a single act of revelation of any such personal information
on social media or in a blog post or comment could lead to huge liabilities. Such
professionals and service providers should have effective policies implemented to
avoid exposures in form of huge liabilities.
To conclude, social networking and
internet is a very powerful and strong platform providing new set of tools
which individuals, professionals and companies can use to their fullest utility,
but as always, there are exposures. However with right set of policies implemented
and proactive legal guidance platform of social media and internet can be used
in most effective manner with minimal exposure.
For any further information and
support contact:
Nishant Ahlawat
+91-9711870085
[i] http://indiatoday.intoday.in/technology/story/internet-users-online-india-google-rajan-anandan/1/376835.html
as accessed on 18 August 2014
[ii] http://blog.digitalinsights.in/social-media-users-2014-stats-numbers/05205287.html
as accessed on 18 August 2014
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