In this assignment I was told to search for a different forums and blogs etc., where people are discussing about privacy and questions regarding to confidentiality. I tried, but I didn't find any active discussions, which I would wanted to participate in. I'll post links here, if I find an interesting conversation to participate in. However I've participated conversations in our Facebook group, where has been many different articles and news linked about privacy, confidentiality and identity.
What privacy aspects should employees be aware while using social media tools?
At first employees must pay attention to their profile, is it their own private profile or are they using it also with official, work-related things? That's important thing, because if you're using it also for work stuff, you can't share all your personal stuff and not even all of your opinions because that's causing confusion with people like are your opinions your own opinions or also your workplace's or company's opinions? Also if you use your profile as both, private and official profile, you have to be ready to answer work-related questions all the time and as participating discussions, remember that you're speaking also as a deputy of your profession. On Facebook there's many different forums and places to discuss about the incidents of the world and you have to be careful what you say out loud, because that may not be removable afterwards. When using your personal profile, it's also important to remember that people may know where you work and what's your position and by that connect your opinions to your company's opinion.
Nowadays for example Skype is important tool of communication in many companies and professions. Many workplaces give their employees their own accounts to Skype and it's used as a communication tool either with your co-workers or negotiations or something similar. You have to remember that you're using it with your work accounts and it's not advisable to use it to manage your personal liaison. If you're using your account with both, work and personal things, remember to keep your work-related stuff to your self, not share it to everybody on your contact list.
It's important that employees know the common rules, which are made for your own working community. This way everybody knows about the same rules and should also follow these. This can also ease controlling what employees are sharing and saying through social media, because co-workers know about the rules and they can point out, if something is not acceptable.
What are the benefits of openness and transparency?
First benefit of openness coming to my mind is that you create a trustworthy and honest image of yourself. Of course people can't be sure, is that really you but at least you're giving this image for outsiders. For example this Finnish shop Jounin Kauppa broke through and became to everyone's knowing using Facebook. The owner, Sampo, is sharing almost everything on Facebook and that gives people certain, honest and reliable, image of the shop and it's owner and also brings the owner closer to people. That's why many people are taking trips to see this Jounin Kauppa and hoping to see also the owner. Openness and transparency can relieve your advertising game and make your company famous in a days, and it doesn't take lot of money. It also can give you new associates and co-workers etc.
Being open and transparent you can also get help from the other people, share your knowledge and
skills and it can also stop you from making mistakes. It brings you closer to the people and makes you available (which isn't maybe that good thing) and approachable. You can get new viewpoints to your opinions or doings or even to your innovations by sharing them and getting advice and thoughts from other people.
When is it beneficial for the employer and employees to share personal information online?
Well in my opinion it's never quite good nor safe to share your really personal information online, but some of them maybe yes. For example if you need to contact someone like right now and you don't have his/hers phone number and email is just too slow way of contacting, you can find the phone number online or contact through social media, for example Facebook Messenger and reach necessary person(s) in minutes.
It might also help bring people closer to you and give positive image of you. For example some of this big corporation leaders have been creating positive image of themselves and their companies by giving out of their charity or voluntary works through social media. It's kinda like free and positive advertisement to you and your company, if you share something positive and respected things in your profile. Of course people might not be sure about truthfulness of these things, but at least some of them believe you and your created image.
What kind of damage can occur if privacy is not taken care of?
The worst image coming to my mind right now is that someone might steal your identity and mess around with it. It can make serious damage to you, because after that people won't know, which were your own opinions and sayings and which where this criminals. So you can lose your whole identity for good, if someone stoles it. If you share too much your personal things, it might get easy to steal your accounts both your personal and your professional accounts. Also this can cause serious problems, especially if your professional account gets stolen and is related to your workplace. Worst comes to worst, you might get fired because it's your job to keep your professional passwords as unsolvable as possible and in this case, when your profile gets stolen, you've made it too easy to find out and maybe also given out your company's important information by letting somebody to break in to your account.
You might get your whole company to danger if things get to that point, where your customer register spreads around and everything, what your company has been participating in surfaces. It can also make it easy to break in to company's information system and getting EVERYTHING from there, including everyone's passwords and personal files etc.
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