Your Digital Footprint & Your Clients [2]
You have a right to express yourself, but never in a way that causes distress or offence to others, and impacts on their rights to privacy and confidentiality.
Client confidentiality & privacy
Clients must have their privacy respected if they are to continue to trust in you, your profession and employer or university. They must feel that they are treated with consideration, compassion and respect and for that reason; professional boundaries must always be adhered to. Always act with restraint and try to avoid engaging in conflict online.
Your credibility
An increasing proportion of the population now has access to the Internet, with the majority of those who access Facebook doing so on mobile devices.
Clients are increasingly likely to research the professionals and students who serve them online. Be sure that they will not feel exposed or betrayed by any comments you make about clients in general, or their issues on social media. It may not be enough to not to give away any client identifiable information, clients should be reassured by the material that they discover online about you.
If you identify yourself as a student of a specific discipline on your social media profiles, make it explicit that the opinions you express are your own and not the opinions of your profession or employer. The guidelines published for your discipline by your professional body and placement provider/employer should be second nature to you.
Security
Be aware that the information you share across various platforms may be readily linked together to break client/patient confidentiality, or even give away the location or movements of your family.
Boundaries
Showcase your personality online, but at all times and in all locations, bear in mind that you are still a professional when using social media as your actions there are potentially permanent and infinitely quotable/re-publishable. As a rule, do not accept Friend requests from clients (as advised by various professional bodies including the BMA), practice supervisors, work colleagues or employers, perhaps replying with a polite personal refusal. Be aware that private messages sent on social media sites - including on instant messaging services such as iMessage, WhatsApp, Snapchat, Whisper and Viber, are not necessarily private or secure and have in the past disclosed additional information such as your specific location.
Further Activity
Wolfram Alpha's analysis of your Facebook data is a useful assessment of the information that can be collated from what you post on Facebook (http://www.wolframalpha.com/facebook/).
