Hung L.
Recruitment Strategist. I solve recruitment problems for companies looking to scale. MD of Wise Man Say
Who Owns Your LinkedIn Profile? You Or Your Employer?
LinkedIn is fast becoming an indispensible professional utility, particularly for people in sales, client relations or some other type of front office customer contact function. By its nature and through usage, your LinkedIn profile will increase its value during your time with an employer; arguably, it will do so in some part, BECAUSE of your employer. The question is - what happens when you leave? Who owns your the network you've built as SalesPerson A at Company X?Have companies developed policies on this? Has anybody ran into conflict with a soon to be ex employer over LinkedIn ownership? Interested to hear from employment law professionals, HR Managers, Sales Managers and anyone else with an opinion
Regards
Hung Lee,
Managing Director, Wise Man Say Ltd
Good Answers (1)
Mary G.
Human Resources Consultant
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I think the question is not really who owns the profile, but what are you allowed to do with your contacts when you leave a company.
No one owns the contacts, but you as an employee may be restricted in how you use the contacts once you leave the company and that depends on what agreements are in place with your former employer. For example, I have been held to a standard of not soliciting employees out of a company for other jobs for a year after I have left that company - that does not mean I can't have conversations with employees or even give them career advise, but I need to be careful as I am the party that could be held accountable and if a current employee comes to me looking for work - I want it to be clear that I have not recruited them for at least the first year after I leave the company.
Likewise customer lists can be considered confidential or proprietary information and so you may need to treat parts of your lists carefully because of the confidentiality agreements you signed and these agreements do not necessarily end when your employment ends. This might be a reason to have your contacts not viewable? But when you think about it, the real customer is frequently your contact's employer so when your contact leaves that company, I would think that would end the confidentiality with regard to that contact.
So be careful when you leave your job, you can stay in touch with your linkedin contacts, but if you signed some agreements restricting your actions with employees or customers, you could be the person your former employer sues. I imagine some reasonable standard would apply - but the reasonable standard needs to be reasonable for the employer and the employee. So don't forget to keep track of what agreements you signed with your employers along the way.
Mary
More Answers (16)
Elie K.
at CSP Media Inc.
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Unless you are putting as the name on your profile the name of your employer, you own your profile. It's your network, and while your employer may have caused you to be able to expand your network, it's still a network of the people you know.
Jennifer K.
.. at currently looking
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My LinkedIn network/profile belongs to me, as does my Facebook and Myspace profiles. I am not making connections because of my employer, I am making connections because of the relationships that I have built, whether it be while with this employer, in the past, or on a personal level.
That is why it's so easy for a sales rep to 'take his/her customers with him/her' when they leave - the relationship is with the PERSON, not the COMPANY.
Just my opinion :)
Clarification added October 30, 2009:
** I use my personal email address for LinkedIn **
The only way that an account is owned by a company is if you use LinkedIn Recruiter. Those are considered corporate accounts even if your name is on it.
Bryan C W.
Seeking a new opportunity in B2B technology; global experience
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Consider this: If you meet people at a trade show, you enter the data into the CRM (and perhaps LI) and your rolodex but you develop the relationship, not the company.
Thus, the LI profile (and networking) is yours. If they have a problem with that, then only access it and use it from home. The network you build is yours. The data may be the companies but that should already be in the CRM system. In any event, you likely have personal connections as well as from non-company business.
As a sales manager, I do want the contact data placed into the CRM but the LI stuff is yours as are the relationships you built. I just need access if/when you leave.
Dave M.
Partner at The Minnesota Sign Guys
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I agree with the concensus that LIs profiles are the individuals.
However, when an account is set up with the primary email address being the companies email address an individual can find themselves in a bind if their access to the company email is restricted.
LIs proof of ownership rest with who controls the email address and password. IMHO.
Best off using a personal email account for primary. If you get let go you can still access your profile and change the other email addresses you have connected with your profile.
David P.
Pro-Bono Paralegal (Russian Language) at Massachusetts Civil Rights Coalition
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I do not currently have an "employer", so obviously they wouldn't "own" it.
Sahar A.
Diversity& Inclusion|Leadership training|Social Media Marketing|Social Media Training|Public Speaker|Culture Competence
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First all LI profiles are individual profiles and not companies profile
There are 1 scenarios here:
Is your company letting use LI during work hours as part of their marketing campaign in SM and this is your role/ part of your job description then they might have a leg to stand on that it is their profile
If you are an individual just listing your company as a place of work, but networking making contacts as a person because of who you are and not because the comoany you are working for then it is your own profile
Wallace J.
Multimedia Producer, i3D Programmer, Acrobat 3D PDF, Android App, Virtual World & iTV Design, Kindle, Nook & Sony eBooks
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The Individual. Except for The White House profile, it belongs to our employer... ;)
Links:
Jason C.
Jason Croyle is an Analyst with MECLABS
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I think that this would be an interesting argument in a court room. How exactly would the courts be able to determine which contacts to "divorce" from the former employee? In some states I think that this would be a highly legitimate court case. In many others here in the USA it wouldn't even be heard. It would really depend upon if you were paid to use Linked In by your employer and if they directed you to do so. If they hired you or positioned you to do this and had you set up a new profile and you did most of your networking on the clock I would agree that ownership belongs to the employer. In my case I started using Linked In on my own and established the importance of this and other social media tools within my organization so I would have to say that I definitely own my contacts. But again if you were hired to create a Linked In presence and you did it on company time - even if you made personal relationships - the employer should own the data - and probably would after a court hearing. If this were the case you could possibly argue that a certain number of contacts were made through open networking, existing friendships and past colleagues and ask to retain those.
Sorry to be the party pooper because I would hate to lose my contacts on Linked In but if you were hired to establish a presence it could be seen as intellectual property guys. If I hired an employee to strictly work on Linked In I would clause into the contract the companies retained ownership of all social media accounts used for work related activities during employment period.
Steven B.
Senior Financial and Business Professional, Board Member & Devoted Father
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It depends.
Me.
Or the White House (see attached)
Links:
Gianluigi C.
Managing Partner 90:10 Group ★ Do you leverage Social Media as business accelerators? Be Faster, Better and Cheaper
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Hello Hung,
It's yours. It's in some part because of your employer, but also of course because of yourself.
A profile is an extension of someone.
Best regards,
Gianluigi Cuccureddu
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Judy B. M.
Business WRITER | Editor | Blogger | Strategic MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS | B2B | Web Content Creator | BusDev
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You. That said, there are many 'members' here who list nothing—not even dates of employment—on their bare-bones profiles except their name and company affiliation. I gather it is these people who are under the misguided impression that their employer owns them.
I believe this could be a short but best answer:
The LinkedIn profile story about Hays and the ex-employee.
Links:
I suspect that this depends upon the definitions applied within an individual contract and is not a right. Commonsense and the consensus of LI answers say that the owner is the individual, but the law doesn't often work that way.
I rather like Mary Glaeser's answer.
Best,
Ray
Links:
I think that the answer of Mary Glaser is quite accurate. Also your question is answered by The High Court of Justice, Royal Courts of Justice, Strand, London in the case of Hays Specialist Recruiment (Holdings) Ltd and Hays Specialist Recruiment Ltd versus Mark Ions and Exclusive Human Resources Ltd. Date 16/04/2008, Citation Number: [2008]EWHC 745 (Ch) :
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Dave M.
Professional trade show booth traffic builder and party entertainer. Corporate and private sector events.
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You do... None of your employers business...
