The Society for the Advancement of Consulting® has asked its global members to comment on what, if anything, most businesses should do about privacy as it relates to the Internet, social media, and related areas. “There is confusion about legal, ethical, and pragmatic policies,” observes SAC CEO Alan Weiss, PhD. “Here are two conclusions summarizing our findings.”

“Some expectations of digital privacy may seem reasonable, but they are irrelevant,” says Ann Latham of Uncommon Clarity, a Massachusetts consulting firm (http://UncommonClarity.com). “Every transmission, whether text or image, whether sent via email, Facebook, text message, or other mechanism, has the ability to come back and haunt you.” Latham recommends you save topics like love, anger, and gossip for private conversation. “If you would be embarrassed to show your grandmother, you probably shouldn’t send it at all.” 

Dr. Maynard Brusman is a San Francisco Bay Area consulting psychologist and executive coach. He is the president of Working Resources, a strategic talent management consulting firm. http://www.workingresources.com He offers a few insights:

Dr. Brusman notes, “Most employers give their employees a reasonable amount of workplace privacy. Few managers grow concerned when an employee occasionally visits a news website or sends an email home. However, while at work except in the company restroom or locker room, employees have no legal privacy rights. A recent CareerBuilder® survey of more than 2,000 hiring managers and human resource professionals found that nearly two in five companies used social media sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter to research job candidates to see if candidates presented themselves professionally and if the candidate was a good fit for the company culture.

“In today’s digital world, numerous employers are implementing employee monitoring software. Across the USA, personal privacy on the job is constantly under debate. The courts have repeatedly ruled that employees have no expectation of privacy in the workplace. Protecting employees’ privacy in the workplace requires that workers understand the capabilities of employee monitoring software. This understanding can empower workers so they can feel confident that their sensitive personal information remains their own. An elephant never forgets, and neither does your office digital copy machine which likely has an internal hard drive.”

“The fact of the matter,” says Weiss, “is that where there is no expectation of privacy there will be no protection, and both employees and employers must bear that in mind at all times. An off-the-cuff comment on Facebook could cost someone a job.”

SAC is an international association of consulting professionals who subscribe to an industry code of ethics and have provided evidence of significant consulting results among their clients. For more information, please go to http://www.consultingsociety.com, write to info@summitconsulting.com, or call 401/886-4097.

Ann Latham creates clarity.  She does it as a consultant for corporate giants, non-profits, and smaller businesses alike that wish to achieve better results in half the time and with greater confidence. Her clients range from Hitachi to Smith College to Public Television of Western New England to the local Chamber of Commerce. She does it as a master facilitator for teams and committees that need to create a common understanding, set aside their differences, develop an inspired and shared vision, and make dramatic progress toward achieving their objectives. She does it as a writer for thousands worldwide who have discovered great value in her newsletter, articles, books, and comments in publications such as The New York Times, Forbes, BusinessWeek, and Inc. And she does it as a speaker for audiences who want clear, pragmatic, immediately applicable ideas.

Ann is a resident of Westhampton, Massachusetts, where she lives with her husband, an English teacher at the Williston Northampton School.

PRESS RELEASE
The SAC® Release
June 1, 2012

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Crysta Ames
401-884-2778
The Society for the Advancement of Consulting®

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