Another Facebook Privacy Issue

A friend of mine just quit thier job, a management positon they held for 15 years, at the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC).

Morally, they cannot do thier job any longer, here's why...

There was a national meeting of RBC call center management 2 weeks ago. The reason for this meeting was social networking sites, specifically Facebook. The bank has ordered thier managers to add all of thier staff as friends on Facebook so that they can then use the site to monitor what thier employees are doing.

Are they talking about the bank?
Are they calling in sick while posting about having gone out for drinks?
Are they engaging in any behavior that the Bank deems questionable?

The bank has added a clause to it's employee guidelines regarding acceptable behavior online with regards to the bank. Specifics include listing yourself as an RBC employee or being a member of the RBC employee group. In either of those cases you are considered by the bank to be a public representative AT ALL TIMES. Anything that is posted can therefore be used against you if the bank does not agree with it.

The added clause however does not outline what methods the bank will use to gain this knowledge.

This is not a case of an employee adding thier boss and then saying something stupid, it is now policy of RBC that all managers add thier employees as friends SPECIFICALLY to spy on them.

There are lots of stories surfacing about employers and Facebook; some employers are going way off the deep end while others are being more reasonable. In this case however RBC has crossed the line in my mind and the mind of my friend. The bank is now requiring managers to spend time, both at work and at home, monitoring their staff via the site.


Heads up all, although I deleted my Facebook account the moment the Canadian government forced the site to make deletion an option to Canadians, I'm guessing many of you probably have an account or definitely know people who do.

If one bank in Canada is doing this, you can bet that there are other businesses that are doing this as well.

DO NOT ADD YOUR BOSS AS A FRIEND.

This is a disgusting invasion of privacy if you ask me, what if an employee doesn't have facebook?
Does this mean they would have to create an account for the sole purpose of being "monitored" by their employers?

I'd tell the bank to get the **** out of my personal business, if they don't like it, sack me?

Most people, sadly, will go along with this. BAAAA!

Just a thought - what about employees who do not have a facebook account for one reason or another?

Reason I ask is because I have various objections to facebook as a whole and if they tried to force me to sign up just for that, well I'd probably get a sweet out of court cash settlement

So don't accept the managers request and keep your profile set to private. They can't tell you what to do out of working hours.

I have zero sympathy for anybody who uses facebook and it bites them back in the buttocks, especially if someone adds their boss.
That is just asking for trouble.

If I keep hearing things like this and people knuckle under to these tyrants I am going to believe what some are saying about something in the water or air that is feminizing Americans and people of the world...Last time I looked I still had my pair....Time to take a look folks......

You cannot be forced to join the site, but it is becomming increasingly more 'acceptable' for employers to demand access to your accounts.

The secondary problem here however is that if you refuse to add your boss, but another employee you have added as a 'friend' does, the employer can still gain access to your updates.

I can't say that I saw this particular scenario comming, but I knew early on that Facebook was going to be trouble and got out as soon as I could (I actually found out that it was over between me and a girlfriend I was living with because of facebook. She didn't realize that my page would be updated that her relationship status was now 'single' when she changed it).

I advise everyone to do the same.

And this is just one reason why I will NEVER have a fakebook account. Unbelievable.

I can't say that I saw this particular scenario comming, but I knew early on that Facebook was going to be trouble and got out as soon as I could

When the mainstream media whores start pushing a website as the next best thing to sliced bread, it's best to steer clear of it. Unfortunately, most people have a delusional sense of self-importance to realize that they are being played like a fiddle when it comes to giving up their privacy.

Facebook account = losing

What can I say, except that Facebook is gay.

I don't agree with having your personal page used as a weapon or an excuse for employers to "weed" out it's employees. A lot of people already have been punished or fired from their jobs due to content on his/her page. I have a friend who was fired for complaining about her day at work. She didn't specifically sign a social network clause but because it says in the paper work she is a rep of the company, there you go...

Heck I'll have to find the story one school program provided laptops for it's students, they had webcams and those webcams were being remotely accessed by the principle. The principles reasoning was to make sure they were being used appropriately. The story made our local news because she was spying on one of the students and to her it looked the the student was taking drugs. When what was taken was an over the counter Ibuprofen / Tylenol.

Sorry rambling but long story short it's an invasion of privacy in a pretty acceptable pink bow. As the technology and social networks grow and evolve not just companies will want to control every move and thought we put out there.

www.computerworld.com...

nydailynews.pcmag.com...

I think of it more of an extremely problamatic privacy story than some abuse story, and frankly, I see no abuse.

Simple solution: Don't add people from work on facebook.
I really don't know why people get so worked up over trivial little things like this. It states that if the person lists themselves as employed by them, they are representing that company. Um, just don't list on your facebook where you work?

Originally posted by PaidDisinfoAgent
What can I say, except that Facebook is gay.

How can a website have a sexual orientation?


Also, to the person who said friends of friends can access your account, I believe it's a setting you can toggle. Public, semi-private and really private (only friends, no FoF)

I'm not a Facebook booster, so I don't really care whether anyone has one or not. That said, I keep one for the same reason I kept a MySpace page back in 2003. I am a freelance writer, a songwriter and a musician, and Facebook is useful for promoting my work, and keeping up with others who do the same.

I wouldn't post anything on there that I wouldn't tell a potential employer to their face, if they asked, so unless they want to scrutinize my love of the Venture Brothers, Spinal Tap and David Bowie, I think they are probably going to be fairly disappointed.

Originally posted by finitydream


I don't agree with having your personal page used as a weapon or an excuse for employers to "weed" out it's employees. A lot of people already have been punished or fired from their jobs due to content on his/her page. I have a friend who was fired for complaining about her day at work. She didn't specifically sign a social network clause but because it says in the paper work she is a rep of the company, there you go...

Heck I'll have to find the story one school program provided laptops for it's students, they had webcams and those webcams were being remotely accessed by the principle. The principles reasoning was to make sure they were being used appropriately. The story made our local news because she was spying on one of the students and to her it looked the the student was taking drugs. When what was taken was an over the counter Ibuprofen / Tylenol.

Sorry rambling but long story short it's an invasion of privacy in a pretty acceptable pink bow. As the technology and social networks grow and evolve not just companies will want to control every move and thought we put out there.

www.computerworld.com...

nydailynews.pcmag.com...

What the heck? That is really messed up. Was the kid at home when the teacher was spying? i bet it would have been a different story if it were a male principal looking at a female student.

reply to post by mr10k


I agree about it being a privacy issue and I have changed the title accordingly.

The original title was based on the idea of employers abusing facebook, although it may be simply semantics, the change has been made.



reply to post by eNumbra

Also, to the person who said friends of friends can access your account, I believe it's a setting you can toggle. Public, semi-private and really private (only friends, no FoF)

That may indeed be the case, it's been a couple years since I deleted my account. I do remember though looking at friends pages and being able to see information from thier friends too.

i Have to say ive never trusted facebook, it seems that someone up there knows what everyone is doing, However my kids made me join, and i rarely use it, im currently going for the world record for person with the least number of friends on facebook, its currently 14, but i am hoping to reduce that.

reply to post by just_julie


He was in his bedroom

Originally posted by eNumbra
How can a website have a sexual orientation?

It's a inherited through the motherboard