Touching on a subject that we discussed back in August, FINRA has issued an advisory note stating that brokers must monitor their employees’ activity on social networking sites. According to the Bloomberg article:
Firms that archive client communications including e-mails need to adopt similar policies for social networking sites and may use software to automatically log brokers’ Web messages…
With the proliferation of social networking sites and the privacy restrictions that most users utilize, it is difficult to imagine how brokers can possibly hope to monitor or record their employees activities on those sites. The best they can hope for is to issue policies prohibiting the use of social networking sites for business. As discussed in our earlier article on the subject, this is eventually going to become an issue for hedge funds and RIA’s as well. Will the SEC eventually issue similar guidance?
Firms interested in learning more should check out the Companion Guide to FINRA Social Networking Compliance http://bit.ly/8xT73y. It picks up where Notice 10-06 leaves off, offering additional detail on social networking considerations and a checklist of requirements for choosing a social networking compliance vendor.