Social Media: Legal and Regulatory Compliance

Business and professional organizations enhance their presence and interact with their consumer or business base through a variety of social media applications.  New applications arrive seemingly every week.  Yet social media is, at base, dissemination of information about the business through stories – from customers, clients, patients and the business or professional practice itself.

A great deal of that information is regulated in its disclosure by federal and state statutes and regulations and, for multinational entities, the laws of the several countries in which they do business or have facilities. These include privacy regulations and laws (i.e., FDA and FTC) for those in the life sciences area, and data protection and privacy laws in Europe, Canada, Asia, Australia and South America.

Many companies have internal protocols that define the information that may be disseminated in public forums such as social media; many of these address concerns about the release of company confidential or proprietary information. It is all too easy to violate one or more of these provisions.

Rashbaum Associates, LLC facilitates and counsels work groups in the preparation of policies and procedures for social media initiatives.

Our services include:

1. Current status assessments and reports (which may be protected from disclosure by attorney-client privilege) with regard to existing social media activities and initiatives, with recommendations as to compliance with applicable laws, rules and regulations;
2. Facilitation of work groups comprising the relevant stakeholders (Marketing, Risk/Compliance, Legal, IT and Business Owners) and counsel for the drafting of social media polices and procedures;
3. Preparation of training materials with regard to social medial policies and procedures, and delivery of training sessions (in formats such as classroom, on-line, or train-the-internal-trainers)
4. Preparation for and counsel with regard to audits (i.e., HIPAA, F.D.A.) of social media protocols and activities;
5. Representation in regulatory proceedings or litigation that may arise from social media activities.