The
following describes the Social Media Disclosure for our website.
Social Media
Issue
We
live in an interesting time when privacy rights are championed
alongside an unprecedented voluntary willingness of people to share
their most intimate and superfluous life details with the world,
even in places such as our website. While apparently benign on the
surface, the dangers of unrestrained public disclosure of sensitive
information is beginning to surface.
Key social media
players are being sued for unauthorized or abusive use/misuse of
personal information. Failure to protect and warn are likely going
to be focal factors. Lawsuits are filed seeking damages for
statements held to be responsible for people’s death or suicide.
Bloggers presuming to operate under an unfettered freedom of speech
or greater latitude offered to members of the press are losing civil
cases for defamation, slander, libel, and so on.
As social media rapidly advances to allow
more technologically sophisticated and easy dissemination, the
simultaneous fallout of revelation without boundaries is mounting.
Thus, a sober approach to the benefits of social media, while
sidestepping the perils of imprudent disclosure, can facilitate an
enjoyable online experience, without the consequences of excess, in
settings such as our own website.
Presence/Scope
of Social Media
You should assume that social media is in
use on our website. A simple click of a button to endorse a person,
product, or service is building a cumulative profile about you,
which you should always assume can be discovered by others.
Attempting to share a website with someone, whether by direct press
of a button or else by email forwarding facilitated on a website,
you should assume that this may not stop with the intended
recipient, and that this can generate information about you that
could be seen by a veritable infinite number of people. Such a
domino effect could initiate right here on our website.
Something as simple as a blog comment
provides the opportunity for knee-jerk reactions that can become
public and may not truly represent a position (at least in strength
or severity) that you might hold after a period of more reasoned
contemplation. You should also note that the ease of accessing one
site through the login credentials of another, or the use of a
global login for access to multiple sites can accumulate a dossier
on you and your online behavior that may reveal more information to
unintended parties than you might realize or want. Any or all of
these features could exist on our website at one time or another.
These few examples illustrate some
possible ways that social media can exist, though it is not an
exhaustive list and new technologies will render this list outdated
quickly. The objective is to realize the reach of social media, its
widespread presence on websites in various forms (including this
website), and develop a responsible approach to using it.
Protecting
Others
You
should recognize the fact that divulgences made in and on social
media platforms on this website and others are rarely constrained
just to you. Disclosures are commonly made about group matters that
necessarily affect and impact other people. Other disclosures are
expressly about third parties, sometimes with little discretion.
What can appear funny in one moment can be tragic in the next. And a
subtle “public” retaliation can have lifetime repercussions.
Ideal use of social media on our website
would confine your disclosures primarily to matters pertaining to
you, not others. If in doubt, it’s best to err on the side of
non-disclosure. It’s doubtful the disclosure is so meaningful that
it cannot be offset by the precaution of acting to protect the best
interests of someone who is involuntarily being exposed by your
decision to disclose something on our website (or another).
Protecting
Yourself
You should likewise pause to consider the long-term effects of a
split-second decision to publicly share private information about
yourself on our website. Opinions, likes, dislikes, preferences, and
otherwise can change. Openly divulging perspectives that you hold
today, may conflict with your developing views into the futures.
Yet, the “new you” will always stand juxtaposed against the prior
declarations you made that are now concretized as part of your
public profile. While the contents of your breakfast may hold little
long-term impact, other data likewise readily shared can have
consequences that could conceivably impact your ability to obtain
certain employment or hinder other life experiences and ambitions.
As with sharing
information about other people, extreme caution should be used
before revealing information about yourself. If in doubt, it’s
likely best not to do it. The short term gain, if any, could readily
be outweighed by later consequences. Finally, you should note that
we are not responsible for removing content once shared, and we may
not be able to do so.
Restrictions on
Use of Social Media Data
You, as a visitor to our website, are not
permitted to “mine” social media or other platforms contained herein
for personal information related to others. Even where people have
publicly displayed data, you should not construe that as though you
have the liberty to capture, reproduce, or reuse that information.
Any use of social media or related platforms on our website are for
interactive use only, relevant only during the website visit.
Accuracy of Social Media Data
As any social media platform is built on
user-generated content, you should consider this fact in seeking to
determine the authenticity of anything you read. We are not
responsible for verifying any user-generated content for accuracy. A
best practices policy would be to view all such content as strictly
opinion, not fact.
Potential Issues
of Liability
You should also be mindful of the fact
that your words could trigger liability for harm caused to others.
While you have the right to free speech, you do not have the right
to damage other people. Under basic principles of tort law, you are
always responsible, personally, for situations where either:
1. you were
required to act, but did not (i.e. – some “duty of care”)
2. your were required to refrain from
acting, but did not (i.e. – slander, defamation, etc.)
These “sins of
omission and commission” could cause problems for you, irrespective
of whether you assert you are conducting business under the guise of
one or more business entities. Illegal and unethical conduct, when
done in the name of a corporation or LLC, is still illegal and
unethical conduct. As it is rarely part of a business plan to engage
in illegal and unethical conduct, you are doubtfully operating in
any official capacity, but rather, perhaps, leveraging that capacity
to effectuate personal wrongdoing. You should consult a licensed
attorney if you wish legal advice as to the (potential) ramification
of your situation or legal problems stemming from this website or
another.
CHANGE NOTICE: As
with any of our administrative and legal notice pages, the contents
of this page can and will change over time. Accordingly, this page
could read differently as of your very next visit. These changes are
necessitated, and carried out, in order to protect you and our
website. If this page is important to you, you should check back
frequently as no other notice of changed content will be provided
either before or after the change takes effect.
COPYRIGHT
WARNING: The legal notices and
administrative pages on this website, including this one, have been
diligently drafted by an attorney. We have paid to license the use
of these legal notices and administrative pages for your protection
and ours. This material may not be used in any way for any reason
and unauthorized use is policed via Copyscape to detect violators.
QUESTIONS/COMMENTS/CONCERNS: If
you have any questions about the contents of this page, or simply
wish to reach us for any other reason, you may do so by using our
Contact information.
