Today’s presentation will provide a wide view of the privacy, security, and employment law issues that are raised by “Social Media.” Social Media, however, is a poorly defined term. While it is used frequently, it is also used loosely. Speakers using the term are referring broadly to a large group of services, websites, and applications that allow individual users to rapidly communicate, share images, links, or other data, and “connect” with large groups.

From a compliance perspective, it is insufficient to state that a loss of protected health information (“PHI”) occurred through “Social Media.” Privacy and compliance officers tasked with preventing, investigating, mitigating and reporting data breaches need to do so in a concise and effective manner that takes into account the different technological structures of the many applications and services known broadly as “Social Media.”