A new Sydney-based company is being employed by large companies and government departments to dig up dirt on staff by spying on Facebook, My Space, Twitter and You Tube posts. They claim to be the only company in Australia that specialize in “online risk and reputation management” that actively monitors social networking sites on behalf of companies.
The claim of companies who use their services is that if controversial posts leak to social media, it can lead to brands suffering immense damage to their reputations. The service was formed about eight months ago in response to the growing trend for people to take conversations they would have traditionally had with mates at the pub onto their social networking profiles. What many employees don’t realize is that these so-called ‘private’ sites are actually public spaces.
Recently two Domino’s employees were sacked and arrested after they published videos of themselves on the web fouling up customers’ food. Late last year, three scantily clad Californian teens were fired from their jobs at KFC for publishing photos of themselves on My Space bathing in a KFC basin. This is only the tip of the ice berg so many companies see a definite need for these services.
Even though these are extreme cases there have been countless instances where staff have been disciplined for seemingly innocuous posts, such as announcing in their Facebook status that they are tired of work or at home ’sick’ after a big night out.
This issue raises questions over where the boundary is between public and private comments. It could backfire when the economy turns around as people refuse to work for or trust companies that spied on staff or companies being accused of digging up dirt from social networking sites as an excuse to fire people due to a tough economic climate.
