OlenderFeldman LLP was interviewed by Jennifer Banzaca of the Hedge Fund Law Report for a three part series entitled, “What Concerns Do Mobile Devices Present for Hedge Fund Managers, and How Should Those Concerns Be Addressed?” (Subscription required; Free two week subscription available.) Some excerpts of the topics Jennifer and Aaron discussed follow. You can read the first entry here.
Eavesdropping
[A]s observed by Aaron Messing, a Corporate & Information Privacy Lawyer at OlenderFeldman LLP, “Phones have cameras and video cameras, and therefore, the phone can be used as a bugging device.”
Location Privacy
[M]any mobile devices or apps can broadcast the location of the user. Messing explained that these can be some of the most problematic apps for hedge fund managers because they can communicate information about a firm’s activities through tracking of a firm employee. For instance, a person tracking a mobile device user may be able to glean information about a firm’s contemplated investments if the mobile device user visits the target portfolio company. Messing explained, “It is really amazing the amount of information you can glean just from someone’s location. It can present some actionable intelligence. General e-mails can have a lot more meaning if you know someone’s location. Some people think this concern is overblown, but whenever you can collect disparate pieces of information, aggregating all those seemingly innocuous pieces of information can put together a very compelling picture of what is going on.”Additionally, as Messing explained, “Some hedge fund managers are concerned with location-based social networks and apps, like Foursquare, which advertises that users are at certain places. You should worry whether that tips someone off as to whom you were meeting with or companies you are potentially investing in. These things are seemingly harmless in someone’s personal life, but this information could wind up in the wrong hands. People can potentially piece together all of these data points and perhaps figure out what an employee is up to or what the employee is working on. For a hedge fund manager, this tracking can have serious consequences. It is hard to rely on technology to block all of those apps and functions because the minute you address something like Foursquare, a dozen new things just like it pop up. To some degree you have to rely on education, training and responsible use by your employees.”
Books and Records Retention
Messing explained that while e-mails are generally simple to save and archive, text messages and other messaging types present new challenges for hedge fund managers. Nonetheless, as Marsh cautioned, “Regardless of the type of messaging system that is used, all types of business-related electronic communications must be captured and archived. There is no exception to those rules. There is no exception for people using cell phones. If I send a text message or if I post something to my Twitter account or Facebook account and it is related to business, it has to be captured.”
Advertising and Communications Concerns
OlenderFeldman’s Messing further explained on this topic, “Social media tends to blur these lines between personal and professional communications because many social media sites do not delineate between personal use and business use. While there is not any clear guidance on whether using social networking and ‘liking’ various pages constitutes advertising, it is still a concern for hedge fund managers. You can have your employees include disclaimers that their views are not reflective of the views of the company or that comments, likes or re-Tweets do not constitute an endorsement. However, you still should have proper policies and procedures in place to address the use of social media, and you have to educate your employees about acceptable usage.”
