Arkansas has became the latest state to enact legislation that bans
schools from deploying social media monitoring firms to track their students' personal digital accounts. Arkansas joins Delaware, California, Michigan, New Jersey and Utah in protecting their
schools, students, and taxpayers from fear and misinformation.
Consultants who sell student-athlete social media monitoring services
to athletic departments are selling legal liability time bombs. Deadspin
has already exposed several companies as having no connection to
college athletics before starting their "social media monitoring firms".
Some companies that are approaching colleges appear to be making material misrepresentations
to market their services.
One consultant quoted me (who appears to have no verifiable experience in college athletics, social media, law, or compliance before he started selling his services to NCAA schools) in a press release touting his social media monitoring service last year. Quoting me to market a service that may create tremendous legal liability for NCAA schools is very troubling. Lawyers and risk professionals who understand this issue would never endorse a service that may increase a school's legal liability and/or may advise an academic institution to violate state and/or federal law.
The bottom line is that states across the country are banning schools
from being able to deploy firms to monitor and archive their students'
personal digital content. These laws may cumulatively save schools
around the United States hundreds of millions of dollars in monitoring, legal, compliance, and insurance costs.
To learn more about these issues you may contact me at www.shearlaw.com.
Copyright 2013 by the Law Office of Bradley S. Shear, LLC All rights reserved.
