This Bachelor’s thesis deals with connections between social media and legislation in the IT professional’s work. The Thesis was commissioned by the research and development unit at HAMK University of Applied Sciences. The unit studies digital working and learning and provides development and innovation services for companies and organizations. The research projects are based on working life.

The objective of the thesis was to find out if IT professionals need knowledge of legislation while working with social media. The purpose was also to collect information about how these kinds of situations are recognized and solved.

The theoretical section consists of new law literature, valid legislation, researches and guidelines of authorities. The methodology of the empirical part is qualitative research. The data were collected through interviews of professionals and analyzed using content analysis.

The research showed that an IT professional needs some knowledge of legislation while working with social media. The situations are recognized quite well and especially things concerning licences and privacy protection are well known. These things are felt as the most important, too. Further education of legislation was wanted related to IT entrepreneurship and data security. All research questions were responded to.

The field of the thesis is also extremely timely because of the news from all over the world. They tell us about governments spying citizens’ email or social media accounts. The field affords plenty of opportunities for further studies and new theses, too.