Recently the online communication services company, Teneros, has launched a new service, called ‘Social Sentry’. This application makes it much easier for companies to keep a close eye on the social networking activities of their employees. For the moment Social Sentry only provides automatic monitoring of Facebook and Twitter accounts, but the company plans to add YouTube, MySpace and LinkedIn by this summer. Social Sentry allows employers to measure how much time employees are spending on social media during work hours. The product will also help them to uncover confidential or embarrassing information.
Employers looking at what their employees are posting on social media are of course no new phenomenon. But with Social Sentry this process becomes automated which makes it more likely that monitoring employees will become commonplace.
Programs like these lead to ethical questions concerning respect for privacy. Do employers really have to know all this information about the private life of their workers? Many people consider Facebook as an intimate and informal way to communicate. Lot’s of them probably aren’t even aware of the possible negative consequences of their online activities.
If employers really want to implement this kind of programs, people should at least be notified about the do’s and don’ts of social media.
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/26/keeping-a-closer-eye-on-workers-social-networking/?partner=rss&emc=rss
By Jasmijn Nomes
