Ensuring your privacy on Facebook
A new survey to come out of the US has revealed that employers are uncomfortable about ‘friending’ their employees on Facebook.
The Robert Half survey conducted by an independent research firm based on telephone interviews with 150 randomly selected employers at the top 1,000 companies in the United States, found that 48 percent of employers are uncomfortable about ‘friending’ their employees on Facebook.
With many people now using social networking for business purposes, the lines between personal and work life are becoming blurred. To ensure you are not caught in a sticky situation on Facebook that comprises your privacy, Robert Half recommends the following:
What to do if?
• You are tagged in an embarrassing photo. Un-tag yourself and change your privacy settings so photos are viewable only by your close friends.
• You are ‘friended’ by someone you do not want to connect with. It might be best to accept friend requests from colleagues to avoid slighting them, but add them to a work list and adjust your privacy settings so you can effectively separate your job from your personal life.
• You are considering ‘friending’ your boss. It may seem like a natural extension of amiable office small talk, but think twice before proactively ‘friending’ your boss. It could become awkward for both of you.
• You want to join various groups. You should join groups that interest you. But if you have colleagues in your network and do not want them to see the groups you join, remember to adjust your application settings.
• You would like to be a fan of certain pages. Becoming a fan of pages on Facebook is visible to anyone who can view your profile, so you should avoid becoming a fan of any page you are uncomfortable sharing with colleagues or business contacts in your network.
• You love quizzes. Stop and think for a moment before taking online quizzes and posting the results to your Facebook page, unless you want professional contacts to find out which ‘Lost’ character you most resemble or personal traits you would rather them not know.
A new survey to come out of the US has revealed that many employers are uncomfortable about ‘friending’ their employees on Facebook.
The Robert Half survey conducted by an independent research firm based on telephone interviews with 150 randomly selected employers at the top 1,000 companies in the United States, found that 48 percent of employers are uncomfortable about ‘friending’ their employees on Facebook.
With so many people now using social networking for business purposes, the lines between personal and work life are becoming increasingly blurred. To ensure you are not caught in a sticky situation on Facebook that compromises your privacy, Robert Half recommends the following:
What to do if?
- You are tagged in an embarrassing photo. Un-tag yourself and change your privacy settings so photos are viewable only by your close friends.
- You are ‘friended’ by someone you do not want to connect with. It might be best to accept friend requests from colleagues to avoid slighting them, but add them to a work list and adjust your privacy settings so you can effectively separate your job from your personal life.
- You are considering ‘friending’ your boss. It may seem like a natural extension of amiable office small talk, but think twice before proactively ‘friending’ your boss. It could become awkward for both of you.
- You want to join various groups. You should join groups that interest you. But if you have colleagues in your network and do not want them to see the groups you join, remember to adjust your application settings.
- You would like to be a fan of certain pages. Becoming a fan of pages on Facebook is visible to anyone who can view your profile, so you should avoid becoming a fan of any page you are uncomfortable sharing with colleagues or business contacts in your network.
- You love quizzes. Stop and think for a moment before taking online quizzes and posting the results to your Facebook page, unless you want professional contacts to find out which ‘Lost’ character you most resemble or personal traits you would rather them not know.
