Expert: John Fuller - 9/21/2011

Question
Hi there, my husbands employer has printed pages from his Facebook account and it has our daughter on it.can they do this.also how did they print this as they don't have access to my account.so did they hack into it.is this allowed. many thanks.

Answer
Hi Sharon,

Unless I misread your question, does your husband have his own Facebook account and you have one as well?  If your husband allowed his employer access either through friending or putting photos as public domain, then the employer either hacked into his account or pulled a photo off of a public domain.  There are privacy levels which as you know you can check.

What was the purpose of posting the photo?  Was it for a family day type outing advertisement or was it any type of photo that could cause your husband grief at work?  Typically a business would not do this unless they have express permission from the employee to do so.  Otherwise it is inappropriate at best and could be a base for an EEO complaint if it affects his terms and conditions of employment by creating a hostile working environment.  Such as if workers are kidding him about the photo or making off color remarks, etc.  If they hacked into your account, that is a completely different story and again could be taking things off of your allowed public domain.  Check with your husband with the privacy settings first and then if you both want that photo taken down from the business, inform them to take it down immediately.  Facebook does cause a lot of problems in businesses today with questionable photos or just those people do not want to have published or just keep personal.  

If you have further questions, please feel free to ask.

John