I must have been out cold
But the way the story’s told
They found me lying naked in the rain
From Bible Black by Heaven and Hell
Any number of times in the past I’ve warned about the inherent lack of privacy with social networking in posts like this, this, this and even this. But this week Sharon Nelson of the {ride the lightning} Electronic Evidence blog had a very interesting post wherein she points outs that employees who engage in social networking at work expose their employers as well as themselves.
So you have a policy against social networking on work computers? Who cares? Probably not your Millennial generation employees. 45% of them use social networking at work whether or not their employers have imposed policy restraints. Of course, you can use technology to block them from visiting these sites on their computers. And then they reach for their cell phones chanting the Millennial mantra, “There’s an app for that.”
That’s right Mr. CIO, pretty much leaves you naked in the rain. But it’s not all bad though, e-discovery folks like Sharon love these miscreants for the bounty they allow them to harvest. Well okay, maybe it is all bad for you. The post references this report from Accenture titled Jumping the Boundaries of Corporate IT which examines the Millennials’ use of technology. Some of the highlights include:
29% of those surveyed say that they don’t know if their company has a social networking policy.
17% say a policy has never been published.
11% say that what the company has published is too complex to understand.
11% say – in essence – screw the policy, I’ll do as I see fit.
If these little tidbits don’t have your IT security folks hyperventilating then you’re not paying attention. I’m thinking that it might be a really good idea to check out that Accenture report and try to understand how Millenials think and their proclivity for defying company policy and look for things that policy tells you shouldn’t exist. It’s not much but it’s better than being completely naked in the rain.
[...] have attempted on numerous occasions, for example here, here and here, to get the point across that you have no reasonable expectation of privacy on social [...]