Text Messaging, Facebook Can Get You in Legal Trouble

he says, "whether it's condoned or not condoned."

With texting, Harnish says, if you equip employees with cell phones that block data, they will use their own. With IM, if you close the software ports used by AOL's AIM and Microsoft's MSN Web Messenger, employees can try Google Talk, Meebo, Skype, Yahoo Messenger and a list of other services. Or they might simply conduct company business on personal accounts. Sarah Palin did it. The Alaska governor and Republican candidate for vice president conducted state business on a personal Yahoo Mail account and is being sued by a political activist to reveal 1,100 messages withheld in a public records request.

Harnish says the key lesson for CIOs who pay attention to how text messages are fairing in the courts is this: Don't pretend employees aren't using text for business or in ways that could harm the business. Learn what employees are doing and get ahead of them, he says. Write a policy and train them on the practices and methods acceptable.

That awareness is critical, he says. When litigation starts, you'll have a much more detailed picture of the ground you'll have to cover to comply with e-discovery requests, saving time and money.

Fino, the CIO at Dean Foods, cautions fellow CIOs: "If we were thinking that the urgency of discovery would go away, we were mistaken. This will be the norm for a good, long time."