"Many people think that just because Google+ is a new social network, it's out of the scope of discoverable information in litigation," Kubicki says. "But that's not the case."

He says that all social media is considered electronically stored information, regardless of how old or new the service is, and thus falls within the scope of potentially relevant information. Therefore should a lawsuit arise, an employee's Google+ information could be admitted as evidence in civil litigation.

Since companies are required by law to preserve any potentially relevant data that is reasonably accessible, there could be scenarios where the company may be required to capture and preserve this data itself. Kubicki says that they're already seeing this within the financial services industry, "where this obligation is born out of regulatory compliance needs."

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