When execs post on the Internet...

Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne has been caught posting anonymously on an Internet chat group while he was conducting a conference call with analysts. This from erstwhile former Business Week editor Gary Weiss's blog. One might call this impressive multi-tasking, but it speaks to an issue that is cropping up more and more: executives posting anonymously on the Net. Whole Foods CEO John Mackey ended up in an embarrassing situation for posting about competitors. This is something that may strictly fall beyond the bounds of Sarbanes-Oxley, which is concerned primarily with financial integrity. But it raises the larger issue of ethics. How do you know what certain employees are saying anonymously and for that matter what kinds of information they are handing out. At the highest levels, this could well be a Reg FD issue. You may want to think about policies that govern Net posts, especially by people with access to material nonpublic information.