The article that Ginny posted is an interesting contrast to this:
 
Forcing Employee to Provide Access to Password-Protected Website Violates SCA
A recent jury verdict suggests that an employer that gains access to an employee's social networking site by pressuring the employee to provide it with credentials for access may thereby violate the Stored Communications Act.  In Pietrylo v. Hillstone Restaurant Group, several former employees of Houston’s restaurants in New Jersey alleged that Houston's owner, the Hillstone Restaurant Group, accessed without authorization the employees' private and password-protected MySpace group website -- used to make comments and jokes about Houston's management, customers, and customer service standards.  The employees were subsequently fired, and they then brought a wrongful termination suit claiming violations of their right to privacy, the Stored Communications Act (SCA) and a similar New Jersey statute, and other laws.  Last July, a federal court in New Jersey denied defendants' motion for summary judgment on the claims for violations of the SCA,
 the parallel state statute, and two invasion of privacy claims, finding that "testimony regarding whether [] consent was voluntary demonstrate[d] a material issue of disputed fact."  Notably, however, the court also concluded that if "consent was only given under duress, then the Defendants were not 'authorized' under the terms of the statute."  Last month, a jury found that Houston's "knowingly or intentionally or purposefully access[ed] [the site] without authorization" on five occasions, in violation of the SCA and the parallel New Jersey statute.  The jury also found the violations to be "malicious."
 
 
Now keep in mind that what Ginny posted deals with what appears publicly. The case cited above had to do with an employer demanding that an employee log in to an otherwise private social networking site. So these are not exactly opposing cases, but they show the focus being brought upon social networking generally.
 

 Patrick Cunningham, CRM
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