In an opinion issued on September 14, 2010, the European Court of Justice (“ECJ”) affirmed the principle of EU law that communications between in-house counsel and corporate employees are not protected by the legal professional privilege.

The German Interior Ministry has announced a proposed privacy law that would prohibit employers from viewing the Facebook profiles of potential employees. For cross-border employers, this is the first alarm that they may soon be prohibited from using information gleaned from social networking sites in recruiting.