In my talks about technology, one of the things I try to emphasize is that there is no “one size fits all” to your social media and technology policy.

As an example, I often talk about how financial industries have additional regulations relating to things like “insider” information, that may provide a reason to furthe restrict employee use of social media and technology.

I now have a very prominent example to go along with it.

Earlier today, Citigroup fired high profile technology analyst Mark Mahaney.  His termination comes after press reports that he and a junior analyst who worked for him, improperly disclosed confidential information about Facebook’s IPO and unpublished revenue estimates for Google’s YouTube.

Citigroup agreed to pay a $2M fine as part of a Consent Decree released yesterday that contains lots of details about the data leak.  Business Insider has all the details in plain English, including an e-mail that said “my boss would eat me alive”.

Yep.   

For employers in specialized industries, it is important to keep your policies up-to-date and remind your staff to follow those policies.

Information travels fast, but it almost always leaves a trail. One trail here, led to a termination. Not the first time, and it certainly won’t be the last.