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The Modern Workplace

Week in Review
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Posted in Discrimination, Privacy & Information Security
Significant electronic data breaches made headlines again this week. Supervalu announced that millions of customer credit card numbers were stolen at various stores. In addition, one of the nations largest hospital chains - Community Health Systems - announced that the personal data of up to 4.5 million patients was taken when hackers bypassed the company's security measures. These latest breaches come at a time when a private research report is indicating that the medical sector has had more data breaches in the last two years than military and banking sectors combined. As we've discussed in previous posts, these ongoing data breaches are a reminder to employers to shore up your security measures for safeguarding sensitive employee data.
In legal news, a Virginia federal court ruling is a good reminder of the risks related to supervisors friending employees on social media sites. In the case, the employer tried to defend an employees disability discrimination claim on grounds that it lacked knowledge of any disability. The Virginia court found, however, that the employee sent a Facebook message to his supervisor revealing his diagnosis and that this was sufficient notice of the disability. Courts have traditionally held that, once a supervisor knows information, the company is deemed to know it as well. So, add this to your list of the reasons to think twice about how your company wants to handle supervisor and employee friending issues.


Technology and the Workplace
Beware of contacting employees through social media (HR Hero)
Overstock to Allow International Customer to Pay in Bitcoin (NY Times)
Delivery Start-Ups Are Back Like It's 1999 (NY Times)
Uber Opens Software Platform to Boost Ride Demand (WSJ)
The French Answer to Flexible Working:  The Right to Privacy and To Limit Work After Business Hours (Trading Secrets Blog)

Technology and the Law
Heartbleed may be culprit in hospital chain hack (CNET)
90% of hospitals and clinics lose their patients' data (CNN)
FBI Investigating Reported Theft of 1.2 Billion Passwords by Russian Gang (NBC News)
Delaware Agrees to Let Families Inherit the Social Media Accounts of the Deceased (Yahoo)
The Feds Want Cars to Chat Instead of Just Watching Each Other (WIRED)

There's an App for That
Square Expands Its Cash Advance Service (NY Times)
Fuhu's Big Tablet Gives Kids More Screen Time Together (WSJ)
Unpakt is 'Yelp for moving companies' (CNN)
Twitter to display tweets from accounts you don't follow -- like it or not (CNET)
Mom-Made App Allows Parents to Lock Their Kids' Phones Until They Call Back (Yahoo)

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