It’s Probably Not Okay to Send Naked Pictures on LinkedIn - Hackdot

Re:It’s Probably Not Okay to Send Naked Pictures on LinkedIn by turc1656 on Wednesday June 14, 2017 @04:15PM (#14555743)

It probably won't affect LinkedIn much, even if the courts were to rule strongly in favor of the plaintiff. Reason being is that this guy was using his work account, meaning he directly represented the company. If it was his personal account that he uses for himself only, I doubt there would be a case at all. But this fool was using the company's account and directly representing the company, just as would be the case if they were talking on the phone or face to face. If he's conducting company business, the general rule is that the company is responsible for their employee. That's pretty much always been the case. The fact that this happened on the internet or, specifically, LinkedIn, is largely meaningless. That's why I don't think it will affect LinkedIn at all. Employers already know the risks about choosing who represents them.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:It’s Probably Not Okay to Send Naked Pictures on LinkedIn by bluetidepro on Wednesday June 14, 2017 @04:18PM (#14555771)

> Reason being is that this guy was using his work account, meaning he directly represented the company. If it was his personal account that he uses for himself only, I doubt there would be a case at all.

Ohhhhhh. Wow, yeah, if that's the case that definitely changes it more. I didn't realize that very distinct difference, I missed that part in the article. I didn't know LinkedIn had "work accounts." I just assumed all the accounts were "personal." I just thought it meant like they were messaging from their normal "personal" profiles and because he had "x" company set in his LinkedIn that meant he was "representing x company" in this context. This makes a lot more sense now knowing that detail. Good catch! :)

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:It’s Probably Not Okay to Send Naked Pictures on LinkedIn by ghaff on Wednesday June 14, 2017 @04:29PM (#14555866)

It's very unclear from the article. LinkedIn does have various services for companies but, in the context of this article, it's not at all obvious that this is something equivalent to a company's twitter handle.

While I certainly think of LinkedIn as largely a professional thing (and would never send these sorts of messages regardless), some of the discussion further down in the story seems off-base. At some level, I'm associated with my company in all non-anonymous or pseudonymous social media but beyond that level I'm not sure why LinkedIn would have some special status because LinkedIn likes to position itself for professional networking.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:It’s Probably Not Okay to Send Naked Pictures on LinkedIn by Volundr on Wednesday June 14, 2017 @04:43PM (#14555965)

The article didn't make it clear if it was a personal or a company account, but the interaction began with him trying to recruit her. So clearly in this instance he's representing the company, regardless of what account he's using.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:It’s Probably Not Okay to Send Naked Pictures on LinkedIn by ghaff on Wednesday June 14, 2017 @04:47PM (#14556004)

Oh agreed. Even if we were talking about a personal email account (which would admittedly be odd), the same would apply. I was more referring to some of the comments further down in the article that seem to argue for LinkedIn having some special status as a network only for purely professional interactions.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:It’s Probably Not Okay to Send Naked Pictures on LinkedIn by watwut on Wednesday June 14, 2017 @05:02PM (#14556095)

The information about account is in the sentence "received sexual messages from a banker—using his corporate account—who had been trying to recruit her."

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:It’s Probably Not Okay to Send Naked Pictures on LinkedIn by ghaff on Wednesday June 14, 2017 @05:07PM (#14556125)

Yes. I read that. I also know that LinkedIn has paid services such as company pages as well as for sharing content. And LinkedIn may have special paid accounts for recruiters that I'm not aware of. However, other comments further down in the article from the company suggest this was just a regular old LinkedIn account. Hence "unclear."

[ Parent | on HN ]