Is it legal for your boss to change your Linkedin profile without your knowledge/consent?
Answers
They cannot do that without your password. Decline - very impolitely - to supply your password. If the company established your Facebook account, it is the company's account, not yours.
The question here is around legality. I would advise you to consult an attorney. There are some very bright people posting here, but without all the details of the request/demand by the boss, it may be a difficult question for a message board for finance and
Change your password and consult an attorney.
I can't answer the "legal" question. I worked for a brief period for an employer that was working hard to create a certain perception of their company online and part of that strategy was to set up employee profiles on Linkedin, controlled by company
Because the employees wanted to control their own profiles and started posting to them and acquiring new connections, and using the social aspects of linkedin, the company strategy fell apart.
The company was local to Seattle and about 75 Million in sales, they had a lot of internal problems some less than normal pattern behavior so I left within about 3 weeks (no its not posted on my profile!).
I'm still not sure what the overall strategy was meant to accomplish. The profile is no longer on Linkedin and those senior level people's profiles are also no longer on Linkedin.
It was very odd and I had never seen this before.
Yes, consult an employment attorney, and find out what your rights are. Don't rock the boat until you know for sure. Quietly start looking for another job.
I don't know the "legal" answer ... but,
If you used a "work" email address to open your account, it's only your account as long as you're in good standing (employed) with the company.
If you opened the profile with a "personal" email address, it's your account so I'm not sure why your boss would be making changes or even how he got into your account to make them.
Last year, I sat at a roundtable with someone who created Linkedin profiles for a living. He had his "personal" account suspended by Linkedin for making changes to his clients' accounts. Your boss could be in trouble with Linkedin if he somehow logged into your account and made changes to an account other than his own.
To add to the above, if your boss has questions and concerns about how you represent yourself in the profile, have a discussion and see if the requests are reasonable. If it is your personal account, you control the content yet if you have content that negatively reflects on the company or your role in the company, you may want to heed their advice. It depends on how the topic was initiated.