3rd From Sol

~ Learn from before. Live now. Look ahead.

3rd From Sol

Tag Archives: Privacy on the Internet

Why You Hate Facebook and Can’t Stand Twitter

04 Monday Feb 2013

Posted by Paul Kiser in Aging, Business, Ethics, Generational, Information Technology, Internet, Lessons of Life, Pride, Public Relations, Relationships, Social Interactive Media (SIM), Social Media Relations, Technology

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Facebook, personality, Privacy, Privacy on the Internet, Twitter, work behavior

Social Media Violates the Dual Work/Home Personality

You hate Facebook and can’t stand Twitter. You are mystified as to why anyone would want to share their personal information on the Internet and you probably make fun of people who do. The surprise is that it’s not because you’re male or because you’re over 40. But you are.

The reason Social Media is such an annoyance to you is because it goes against everything you were taught as you grew up. Social Media exposes your private persona and violates the boundary between your professional and personal identities.

Self Identity Devoured By The Corporation
Industrialization in the 19th and 20th centuries changed reshaped the life of the American male. As employment opportunities switched from being primarily farmers and small business owners to employees of the factories and corporations, workers found that their on-the-job behavior had to conform to company expectations. Job advancement within the company structure depended on a bosses perception of the perceived professionalism of the employee and not who they were in real life. That transformed the American worker into an actor who performed by the company script while he was under the watchful eye of his employer.

This division of a person’s life between home and work created a dual personality in men. At home a man was relaxed, caring, and spontaneous, or ‘unprofessional.’ At work a man was controlled, self-conscious, and unemotional, or ‘professional.’ As corporations became bigger, the division between the home and work personas became deeper to the point that a man might not be recognizable to his co-workers if their paths crossed outside of the work day.

Enter Social Media
Social Media tools like Facebook and Twitter have no work/home boundaries. The idea that a man should have a two personas is laughable in a Google searchable world that exposes the smallest of lies. That cold and tough business man doesn’t look so tough or cold when he posts pictures of his family activities on Facebook and that strips a man of his power base. The fake professionalism at work that empowers him can’t compete with the real person revealed on-line. The more a man’s power is dependent on his ‘professional’ persona, the more likely he is to abhor Social Media.

However, men who are angry about the lack of privacy in Social Media are trying to wage a hopeless battle to protect the nurtured idea that they must maintain two separate personas. The problem is that humans were never meant to divide their lives. Who we are at home is who we should be at work and vice versa.

It is understandable why you hate Facebook and can’t stand Twitter. They expose your greatest vulnerability…the real you. Perhaps someday that won’t seem like a vulnerability to you. And perhaps someday you’ll understand that the real you is not your weakness, but your strength.

Perhaps.

HR/Security Hot Topic: Should you watch your employee’s personal Internet activities? (Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc.)

28 Thursday Oct 2010

Posted by Paul Kiser in Branding, Business, Communication, Consulting, Crisis Management, Customer Service, Employee Retention, Ethics, Government Regulation, Honor, Human Resources, Information Technology, Internet, Management Practices, Pride, Privacy, Public Relations, Re-Imagine!, Recreation, Relationships, Respect, Rotary, SEO, Social Interactive Media (SIM), Social Media Relations, Violence in the Workplace, Website

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

background checks, Blogging, Blogs, case law, Employee evaluations, Employee privacy, Employer liability, Employment, Employment Law, employment verification, Executive Management, Facebook, HR, Human Resources, Internet, lawsuit, LinkedIn, Management Practices, monitoring employees, New Business World, performance reviews, Privacy, Privacy on the Internet, Public Image, Public Relations, Publicity, Rotary, security, Social Media, Social Networking

by Paul Kiser
USA PDT  [Twitter: ] [Facebook] [LinkedIn] [Skype:kiserrotary or 775.624.5679]

Paul Kiser

One of the hottest topics in the world of employment is whether or not an employer should monitor his or her Internet activities. This is a subject I’ve written about before, but it is an issue that is still emerging and has yet to have any significant case-law to provide guidance to employers.

It is well-known that a large number of employers perform a ‘Google’ search on the Internet before they hire an applicant, but now companies are feeling the need to continue to monitor an employee’s Internet activities after hire. Many experts, especially those involved in employee liability prevention support an employer’s right to monitor an employee’s Internet activities even when those activities occur off-duty and offsite. The logic is that it is prudent to aware of anything an employee might say or do that could embarrass the employer, or any indication that the employee might take an action that might involve the company and its facilities.

These are rational arguments, but I believe that monitoring an employee’s activities is opening the door to bigger liability issues. Sound odd? Here’s the scenario I see happening in three Acts.

Should the Employer be Big Brother?

Act One: A busy-body employer or manager casually checks his or her employee’s Facebook, MySpace, and/or Twitter accounts. The employer might even do a Google search on an employee from time to time. When the employer or manager finds something that they see as objectionable they confront the guilty employee and take the proper action. It becomes known throughout the company (and the employee’s family) that the employer monitors its employee’s personal Internet activity.

Act Two: An employee has been reprimanded for content they have posted on the Internet. Six months later the same employee posts information on the Internet that he  is considering suicide and describes in detail how he is going to kill himself. Two weeks later the employee carries out the suicide as described. The family is aware the employer monitors the employee’s Internet activity and sues the employer claiming that the employer should have reasonably been aware of the planned suicide and taken action.

Act Three: Companies find themselves with two polar opposite choices. Either the company does not monitor their employee’s Internet activities or the company assigns resources to constantly monitor the Internet on every employee to insure they capture any relevant data for which the company should take action.

I was trained in Human Resources under the policy that what the employee did on her or his own time was off-limits to the employer unless it had a direct impact the job performance. That policy has had to be adjusted in a world where work and off-duty time can often be hard to differentiate, and where drug testing, researching credit scores and background checks have become standard operating procedure for many companies. However, an employee’s personal Internet activities is almost impossible to track in a society that is increasing involved in hours of daily online social networking. The question is whether an employer wants to be liable for monitoring its employees 24/7/365 and being held responsible for taking the appropriate action, or whether the employer would be better served by not being sucked into liability issues that can be avoided by simply not playing the role of Big Brother ?

I know which strategy I would recommend to my clients.

More Articles

Business: Public Relations, Management, and Social Media Related

  • Relationship Typing: 3 factors that affect the quality and depth of friendship (Part I)
  • Starbucks Re-Imagines the business … again
  • Your Privacy Rights on the Internet: Read before you write
  • Social Media 3Q Update: Who uses Facebook, Twitter,LinkedIn, and MySpace?
  • Richmond Embassy Suites: The best at true Hospitality
  • Dear Business Person: It’s 2010, please update your brain.
  • Selling watered-down beer: The best spin campaign in advertising
  • Communication: Repetition of message does not increase awareness
  • Is it time to fire yourself?
  • Millennium Hotel: Go away, spend your money elsewhere
  • Rogue Flight Attendant shows his arrogance, Airlines dislike for the customer
  • 2Q 2010 Social Media Tools: Facebook/Twitter sail on, LinkedIn/MySpace don’t
  • War Declared on Social Media: Desperate Acts of Traditional Media
  • Pay It Middle: The Balance between Too Much and Too Little Compensation
  • Mega Executive Pay Leads to Poor Performance
  • Relationships and Thin-Slicing: Why the other person knows what you’re really thinking
  • Browser Wars: Internet Explorer losing, Google Chrome gaining ground
  • WiFi on Southwest Airlines: Is it ‘Shovel Ready’?
  • Starbucks makes a smart move: Free WiFi
  • Foul Play: FIFA shows what less regulation offers to business
  • The Shock of the McChrystal Story: The story is over before the article is published
  • Tony Hayward: The very model of a modern Major General
  • Epic Fail: PR ‘Experts’ don’t get Twitter
  • King of Anything: Social Media vs Traditional Media
  • Twitter is the Thunderstorm of World Thought
  • Signs of the Times
  • How Social Interactive Media Could Transform Higher Education
  • How to Become a Zen Master of Social Media
  • Death of All Salesmen!
  • Aristotle’s General Rules on Social Media
  • Social Media:  What is it and Why Should You Care?
  • Social Media 2020:  Keep it Personal
  • Social Media 2020:  Who Shouldn’t Be Teaching Social Media
  • Social Media 2020:  Public Relations 2001 vs Social Media Relations 2010
  • Social Media 2020: Who Moved My Public Relations?
  • Publishing Industry to End 2012
  • Who uses Facebook, Twitter, MySpace & LinkedIn?
  • Fear of Public Relations
  • Dissatisfiers: Why John Quit
  • Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn…Oh My!
  • Does Anybody Really Understand PR?

Rotary Related

  • Rotary@105: 7 Relationship types that affect membership retention (Part II)
  • What most non-Rotarians don’t know about Rotary
  • Rotary@105: Making Rotary Sexy
  • Rotary@105: Grieving change
  • How Rotary can..must..will plug into Social Media
  • Rotary PR: Disrespecting the Club President is a PR/Membership issue
  • Rotary Membership/Public Image Challenge
  • Rotary New Year: Retread or Renaissance?
  • Rotary@105: A young professionals networking club?
  • One Rotary Center: A home for 1.2 million members
  • Rotary@105:  What BP Could Learn from the 1914 Rotary Code of Ethics
  • Rotary Magazine Dilemma Reveals the Impact of Social Media
  • Rotary@105:  April 24th – Donald M. Carter Day
  • Rotary@105:  What kind of animal is Rotary International?
  • Rotary:  The Man in the Yellow Hat as the Ideal Club President?
  • Rotary@105:  Our 1st Rotary Club Dropout
  • Rotary Public Relations and Membership: Eight Steps to a Team Win
  • Rotary: All Public Relations is Local
  • Best Practices:  Become a Target!

Science Related

  • Negative Time: The Self-fulfilling Prophesy a Scientific Possibility?
  • Physics in 2010: The more we understand, the less we know

Personal Experience Related

  • Knowing when it’s over or beyond over
  • Dear Teresa Laraba, SVP of Southwest Airlines Customer Service
  • Things I didn’t know about being a Father to a four-year-old boy
  • Riding Reno: The Ladies of Reno
  • Up in the air down in Texas
  • I mow my lawn because…
  • Nevada I-580: An Interstate by any other name
  • Nevada’s oldest brewery opens a Reno location
  • Two Barbecues and a Wedding
  • Car Dealership Re-Imagines Customer Service

Our Country and History Related

  • I’m not angry, nor am I stupid … and I voted
  • Point of Confusion
  • What I’m not buying this year
  • Nevada: State of Disaster
  • Thank you, Mr. President
  • America’s Hostile Takeover of Mexico

Your Privacy Rights on the Internet: Read before you write.

11 Monday Oct 2010

Posted by Paul Kiser in Branding, Business, Communication, Crisis Management, Customer Relations, Customer Service, Ethics, Honor, Human Resources, Information Technology, Internet, Lessons of Life, Management Practices, Passionate People, Pride, Privacy, Public Relations, Re-Imagine!, Relationships, Respect, Rotary, Social Interactive Media (SIM), Social Media Relations

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Blogging, Blogs, Facebook, Internet, LinkedIn, New Business World, Privacy on the Internet, Public Image, Public Relations, Re-Imagine!, Rotary, Social Media, Social Networking, Twitter, Your Rights

by Paul Kiser
USA PDT  [Twitter: ] [Facebook] [LinkedIn] [Skype:kiserrotary or 775.624.5679]

Paul Kiser

I have had several discussions with people who have a fear of the Internet and Social Media tools. The common issue that arises is regarding privacy, which to me is an interesting concern. Being concerned that you’re giving up your privacy if you use the Internet is, to me, a Homer Simpson moment.

I’m not sure where anyone got the idea that writing something and sending it out over a public system of servers, visible to almost anyone, and recorded for all time would be private, but for those of you who have that impression, let me read you your rights:

Your Right to Privacy on the Internet

  • You have a right to stay silent.
  • You have a right to not participate in Internet/online activities.
  • You have a right to consult an attorney before you participate in any Internet/online activities.
  • You have the right to stay in your house, block up the windows and never go out into public.
  • If you choose to participate in any Internet/online activities, anything you say can and will:
    • be considered a reflection of your public image
    • be available for anyone in the world to access
    • be recorded for the remainder history of the civilized world
    • be used against you now, or in the future
  • If you choose to NOT participate that will NOT prevent:
    • People from talking about you on the Internet
    • People using your image for almost any purpose
The Internet, and Social Media tools like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and LinkedIn allow people to communicate in a way we’ve never been able to communicate before. It is not intended for private discussions, but it is an open forum. That makes some people uncomfortable, and while I understand that, I also have to wonder why people have a need to say something they are not willing to say publicly?

There is still a time and place for a personal, one-to-one conversation to discuss matters between the two people, but isn’t that better to be done in person? Privacy is not what one should expect when using the Internet, but it is the place for ideas and concepts to be discussed in an open environment that values the input of all. Yes, sometimes the stupid people have louder voices and win the day, but at some point people will look back and learn who was behaving stupidly and who was really correct.

Here are four things I try to keep in mind when participating in online activities:

  1. Sometimes I’m going to say something stupid. I’m human and I will have to buck up and take responsibility for it.
  2. Sometimes people are going to ridicule what I have to say. That doesn’t mean they are correct and it may be a reflection of their poor judgement, not mine.
  3. By participating I will learn more than I could if I did not participate. Sometimes the lesson will be difficult, but that will usually mean I will learn more.
  4. Social Media is not the alpha and omega of life, but it is one of the most powerful communication tools ever conceived.
Now you have been read your rights… you can take it from here.

More Articles

Business: Public Relations, Management, and Social Media Related

  • Social Media 3Q Update: Who uses Facebook, Twitter,LinkedIn, and MySpace?
  • Richmond Embassy Suites: The best at true Hospitality
  • Dear Business Person: It’s 2010, please update your brain.
  • Selling watered-down beer: The best spin campaign in advertising
  • Communication: Repetition of message does not increase awareness
  • Is it time to fire yourself?
  • Millennium Hotel: Go away, spend your money elsewhere
  • Rogue Flight Attendant shows his arrogance, Airlines dislike for the customer
  • 2Q 2010 Social Media Tools: Facebook/Twitter sail on, LinkedIn/MySpace don’t
  • War Declared on Social Media: Desperate Acts of Traditional Media
  • Pay It Middle: The Balance between Too Much and Too Little Compensation
  • Mega Executive Pay Leads to Poor Performance
  • Relationships and Thin-Slicing: Why the other person knows what you’re really thinking
  • Browser Wars: Internet Explorer losing, Google Chrome gaining ground
  • WiFi on Southwest Airlines: Is it ‘Shovel Ready’?
  • Starbucks makes a smart move: Free WiFi
  • Foul Play: FIFA shows what less regulation offers to business
  • The Shock of the McChrystal Story: The story is over before the article is published
  • Tony Hayward: The very model of a modern Major General
  • Epic Fail: PR ‘Experts’ don’t get Twitter
  • King of Anything: Social Media vs Traditional Media
  • Twitter is the Thunderstorm of World Thought
  • Signs of the Times
  • How Social Interactive Media Could Transform Higher Education
  • How to Become a Zen Master of Social Media
  • Death of All Salesmen!
  • Aristotle’s General Rules on Social Media
  • Social Media:  What is it and Why Should You Care?
  • Social Media 2020:  Keep it Personal
  • Social Media 2020:  Who Shouldn’t Be Teaching Social Media
  • Social Media 2020:  Public Relations 2001 vs Social Media Relations 2010
  • Social Media 2020: Who Moved My Public Relations?
  • Publishing Industry to End 2012
  • Who uses Facebook, Twitter, MySpace & LinkedIn?
  • Fear of Public Relations
  • Dissatisfiers: Why John Quit
  • Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn…Oh My!
  • Does Anybody Really Understand PR?

Rotary Related

  • What most non-Rotarians don’t know about Rotary
  • Rotary@105: Making Rotary Sexy
  • Rotary@105: Grieving change
  • How Rotary can..must..will plug into Social Media
  • Rotary PR: Disrespecting the Club President is a PR/Membership issue
  • Rotary Membership/Public Image Challenge
  • Rotary New Year: Retread or Renaissance?
  • Rotary@105: A young professionals networking club?
  • One Rotary Center: A home for 1.2 million members
  • Rotary@105:  What BP Could Learn from the 1914 Rotary Code of Ethics
  • Rotary Magazine Dilemma Reveals the Impact of Social Media
  • Rotary@105:  April 24th – Donald M. Carter Day
  • Rotary@105:  What kind of animal is Rotary International?
  • Rotary:  The Man in the Yellow Hat as the Ideal Club President?
  • Rotary@105:  Our 1st Rotary Club Dropout
  • Rotary Public Relations and Membership: Eight Steps to a Team Win
  • Rotary: All Public Relations is Local
  • Best Practices:  Become a Target!

Science Related

  • Negative Time: The Self-fulfilling Prophesy a Scientific Possibility?
  • Physics in 2010: The more we understand, the less we know

Personal Experience Related

  • Things I didn’t know about being a Father to a four-year-old boy
  • Riding Reno: The Ladies of Reno
  • Up in the air down in Texas
  • I mow my lawn because…
  • Nevada I-580: An Interstate by any other name
  • Nevada’s oldest brewery opens a Reno location
  • Two Barbecues and a Wedding
  • Car Dealership Re-Imagines Customer Service

Our Country and History Related

  • Nevada: State of Disaster
  • Thank you, Mr. President
  • America’s Hostile Takeover of Mexico

Other Pages of This Blog

  • About Paul Kiser
  • Common Core: Are You a Good Switch or a Bad Switch?
  • Familius Interruptus: Lessons of a DNA Shocker
  • Moffat County, Colorado: The Story of Two Families
  • Rules on Comments
  • Six Things The United States Must Do
  • Why We Are Here: A 65-Year Historical Perspective of the United States

Paul’s Recent Blogs

  • Dysfunctional Social Identity & Its Impact on Society
  • Road Less Traveled: How Craig, CO Was Orphaned
  • GOP Political Syndicate Seizes CO School District
  • DNA Shock +5 Years: What I Know & Lessons Learned
  • Solstices and Sunshine In North America
  • Blindsided: End of U.S. Solar Observation Capabilities?
  • Inspiration4: A Waste of Space Exploration

Paul Kiser’s Tweets

What’s Up

January 2023
S M T W T F S
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
293031  
« Jun    

Follow Blog via Email

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 1,651 other subscribers

Create a website or blog at WordPress.com

 

Loading Comments...