Page 11 - Assessor Code of Conduct v1 July 2019

Misuse or abuse of social and digital media can cause significant injury to third parties and can also
impact negatively on the credibility of EQA.

EQA is potentially vicariously liable for injury caused by misuse or abuse of social and digital media
channels by its employees and those engaged through an Independent Service Contract.
Consequently, EQA takes any misuse or abuse of social and digital media by Assessors very seriously
and misuse or abuse may lead to the termination of our contract with you.

Each Assessor is responsible for respecting and protecting the privacy and confidentiality of the
information they process at all times.

EQA reserves the right to take such action as it deems appropriate against users who breach the
conditions of these policies or Data Protection regulations. Assessors who breach these policies may
be denied access to the organisation’s information technology resources, and may be subject to
disciplinary action, including termination of contract.

There is an implied term of mutual trust and confidence between EQA and Assessors in all
Independent Service Contracts. If defamatory material is posted on a social networking site,
defamation claims may arise against EQA.
Assessors must not improperly disclose, during or following termination of contract, information
gained in the course of their work.

5.1 Personal Social Media Profiles
At present over 2 million people in Ireland have a personal Facebook profile, and most use it on a
weekly or daily basis. This is merely one of a number of applications that allows visitors to establish a
profile and enter into debate, comment and conversation online, such as YouTube, Twitter, Facebook,
Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest, news sites like the Journal.ie, joe.ie and many more.

Everyone is entitled to explore and engage in social media communities in a personal capacity, at a
level at which they feel comfortable. As time passes, more and more people tend to link together in
this way, and many social media sites will continue to allow you to register personal information like
your hometown, education, likes, interests - and details of your contractual relationship to an
employer or legal entity.

If you choose to identify yourself as an Assessor engaged in a service contract with EQA on your social
media profiles, or in your commentary on personal topics within social media sites, it is important to
use common sense and be aware of the nature of your comments and their possible consequences. It
is important that all our Assessors are aware of the implications of engaging in forms of social media
and online conversations that reference EQA or your association with EQA. Customer and fellow
Assessor privacy rights, data protection requirements, defamation law and basic duty of care all still
apply in comments that are made while off-duty and online. If an Assessor comments online in a
personal capacity while identified as being in some way connected to EQA, these comments can be
attributed or perceived as the official position of EQA.

Personal blogs created by employees of EQA or by Assessors, including microblogs like Twitter
accounts, should have a clear disclaimer that the views expressed by the author in the blog are the
author’s alone. Authors should write clearly and in the first person, to clarify that the views or
comments are done so entirely in a personal capacity.

Assessor Code of Conduct Issue 1 July 2019 Page 11 of 16