New Software For Employers To Monitor Facebook

[Antithesis]

An anonymous reader writes "The NY Times reports that a new service called Social Sentry has been released to monitor employees' Facebook and Twitter accounts for $2 to $8 per employee. The service also plans to support MySpace, YouTube and LinkedIn by this summer. 'Lewis Maltby, president of the National Workrights Institute, a research and advocacy group, called the automatic monitoring of social networking a "disaster," and predicted that it would lead to people being fired for online griping, the airing of political views and other innocuous conversation. There is a tendency to react to an off-color joke or complaint that appears online more harshly than to the same comment made in a cafeteria or company picnic.'"

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/03/...%28Slashdot%29

Dun-dun-dun!

[Cephius]

Non-story. It just collects publicly posted information.... ie, stuff that was viewable by anyone anyway. If you don't want your employer to see what you post on your wall, make your shit private and don't friend employees. Simple.

[Antithesis]

A lot of the stupid people are probably gonna get fryed for it. Probably had it coming anyway.

[Quixon]

Non-story. It just collects publicly posted information.... ie, stuff that was viewable by anyone anyway. If you don't want your employer to see what you post on your wall, make your shit private and don't friend employees. Simple.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

Seriously though, wtf is the deal with employers stalking employee facebook accounts? Who the fuck cares what your employees do on their own time if they come to work and get their jobs done like they should?

[Cephius]

It's already happened plenty of times. But yeah, don't post stupid shit where everyone can read it and you're fine!

[Bingbong]

So let's pose this situation then.
I have a facebook page.
I have none of my supervisors friended on that page, and have in fact refused to "friend" a boss that sent a request.
I do use my facebook to talk negatively about my job, my company, and my supervisors if something has bothered me to that point.

Now you're telling me that my supervisors will be able to see those things I post in my free time, away from company equipment, and possibly use them to discipline/terminate me?

I'd love to see them try.

Edit: Checked that first link, the teacher has sued the school department, still haven't found a verdict or settlement.

[Cephius]

So let's pose this situation then.
I have a facebook page.
I have none of my supervisors friended on that page, and have in fact refused to "friend" a boss that sent a request.
I do use my facebook to talk negatively about my job, my company, and my supervisors if something has bothered me to that point.

Now you're telling me that my supervisors will be able to see those things I post in my free time, away from company equipment, and possibly use them to discipline/terminate me?

I'd love to see them try.

If you were dumb enough to leave your profile public, then yes, they can fire you.

And no, you can't do anything about it. Having a job is not a right. As long as they're not firing you because you're black, or a woman, or something discriminatory like that, they can fire you for any reason they want.

If they got that info from hacking into your account or something, then that's another matter entirely.

[Yuri-G]

So let's pose this situation then.
I have a facebook page.
I have none of my supervisors friended on that page, and have in fact refused to "friend" a boss that sent a request.
I do use my facebook to talk negatively about my job, my company, and my supervisors if something has bothered me to that point.

Now you're telling me that my supervisors will be able to see those things I post in my free time, away from company equipment, and possibly use them to discipline/terminate me?

I'd love to see them try.

Depends, if your employment is at-will then ->

Otherwise, I doubt they could, but I'd say it all depends on the contract.

[Jodwahh]

I'm guessing the software would be linked to certain people within private FB groups who could be used to monitor chatter. Assuming you have no-one friended thats a monitor for the company you would be golden.

[Killgannon]

can i sell my facebook to companies to spy on their employees that happen to be my friends?

seriously though, privacy settings nimrods

edit: the only thing i cant seem to block people from seeing is pages ive become a fan of, so just avoid becoming a fan of "<your workplace> sucks" and illegal activities and you're probably golden

[volcanicweather]

even if you friend a boss/supervisor/lame co-worker, just put them on a barebones limited profile and you're golden

[Jefe]

Visiting a networking website such as FaceBook, Twitter, or Myspace while on duty are grounds for dismissal~

[Bingbong]

If you were dumb enough to leave your profile public, then yes, they can fire you.

And no, you can't do anything about it. Having a job is not a right. As long as they're not firing you because you're black, or a woman, or something discriminatory like that, they can fire you for any reason they want.

If they got that info from hacking into your account or something, then that's another matter entirely.

There's a HUGE difference between considering "having a job" a right, and "free speech away from work" a right.
One is obviously not a right, where one can be considered the most important right.

I'm not much into worrying about Big Brother watching, but this seems a little over the top if companies are actively searching out their employees non-work related activities.

[Ryany]

can i sell my facebook to companies to spy on their employees that happen to be my friends?

I've said this many times already about how easy it could be for a spy to bribe a friend of the person they want to spy on. They would then temp log on as the bribed person's account and mine all the private info from their target. That's why I'll never assume that anything is private. If someone wants to get information off of there bad enough, they will get it.


I view online spying sort of like spamming. The cost of mass-mailing real mail 30 years ago usually kept junk mail to a minimum. Then technology came along and they could spam you via email for maybe 1/100th of the cost. In the old days, sending someone out to follow someone around to every public place they go with a camera ready to shoot was almost 100% cost prohibitive. Therefore, nobody used to do it. Now, technology lets people do the something very similar for a very small fraction of the cost.

I'm guessing some sort of equilibrium will be reached, where people's private lives are a bit more forgiven on minor flaws since more will get things exposed.

[Absolutely Virtue]

There's a HUGE difference between considering "having a job" a right, and "free speech away from work" a right.
One is obviously not a right, where one can be considered the most important right.

I'm not much into worrying about Big Brother watching, but this seems a little over the top if companies are actively searching out their employees non-work related activities.

Nobody would be surprised if you got disciplined for talking shit about your boss at a happy hour with your co-workers. Nobody should be surprised if the same thing happens via Facebook.

[Woozie]

I'd be surprised if my boss actively sought to overhear my conversations at happy hour, and went as far as to pay someone to report my conversations back to him.

[Seanr]

If they wanna see me shit talking, they need to monitor BG not facebook.

[Weltall]

If you were dumb enough to leave your profile public, then yes, they can fire you.

And no, you can't do anything about it. Having a job is not a right. As long as they're not firing you because you're black, or a woman, or something discriminatory like that, they can fire you for any reason they want.

If they got that info from hacking into your account or something, then that's another matter entirely.

This guy had it right. Of course, they can, and will, fire you. No, you can't do anything about it unless you can prove (lol good luck) it was because of sexism, racism, or something along those lines.

Solution: Don't be an idiot. Also, none of your friends give a rat's behind if you are angry at your boss, the world, or your company. Write it down on a sheet of paper, and then shread it.

[Soa]

I remember when that guy working for the Eagles got fired for saying that they were dumb for letting Brian Dawkins walk on his Facebook page.

Yeah if you aren't smart enough to make your profile private, then you probably aren't smart enough to not post dumb shit on your wall.

[Mizango]

Ceph dropping truth bombs. I could not have said it better man.