Arnold
CibbuanoWarning: Blogging may cost you your job. – Part 2
September 19th 2006 00:13
A continuation of yesterday’s post…
It is very easy to assume that your posts are not traceable. You may have gone to painstaking efforts to ensure that a nasty post is void of any information or references to a specific person, institution or company. When people get busted with their blogs it is not usually the bitching post that is their unraveling, but rather previous posts that link the clues and point back to you. In a previous post you may have mentioned a co-worker by name, the company that you work for. Some will inadvertently have identifiable information in their personal profiles, posted links to relevant pages or else wise given the game up. So in the heat of the moment you may have carefully removed any direct references in your post, yesterdays post may have exposed yourself or your company in all its glory.
The key message is to know your blog. If you decide to follow a policy of anonymity so you can bitch about the workplace or school environment follow this policy with strict reverence. Stick to first names or use alias, keep any references or situational stories in general terms. Once you narrow down your location, occupation, industry, company, gender etc and combine these things with a few specific events an employer can probably narrow down the offender pretty easily.
This comes to the argument of how a boss is going to stumble on your blog. Afterall, there are a plethora of blogs out there. What are the chances of a superior finding such information? If you are blogging from the office, a sneaky boss could keep a track of the sites that you are visiting on a regular basis. Technically this is a real arsehole thing to do. But being arseholes is unfortunately where some bosses excel. Co-workers can be another source of leaked information. A co-worker may know of your blog, take offense to what has been posted and take the matter further. Ever googled your name? Just imagine googling your name and finding an image of yourself caught in the act of picking your nose in your cubicle with some smart caption along the lines of “Another example of Joe Shmoes repulsive behaviour!” - A great reason to stop using full names in posts.
Another less likely possibility of your blog getting uncovered is the less likely chance that whatever you’ve written has become so wildly popular that it becomes an international or regional cult phenomenon. Now the chances are remote, but its not to say it can’t happen. Especially if you’ve got some juicy story of corporate espionage or other similar sensitive type information. All you need is for just the right person to find you’re rant to convert a small affair into a public affair. To cover your ass, if for whatever brain explosion reason you do make claims about your work or learning environment that could fall under the category of defamation, make sure you’ve got foolproof evidence to backup any claim.
Check back tomorrow for more discussion….
It is very easy to assume that your posts are not traceable. You may have gone to painstaking efforts to ensure that a nasty post is void of any information or references to a specific person, institution or company. When people get busted with their blogs it is not usually the bitching post that is their unraveling, but rather previous posts that link the clues and point back to you. In a previous post you may have mentioned a co-worker by name, the company that you work for. Some will inadvertently have identifiable information in their personal profiles, posted links to relevant pages or else wise given the game up. So in the heat of the moment you may have carefully removed any direct references in your post, yesterdays post may have exposed yourself or your company in all its glory.
The key message is to know your blog. If you decide to follow a policy of anonymity so you can bitch about the workplace or school environment follow this policy with strict reverence. Stick to first names or use alias, keep any references or situational stories in general terms. Once you narrow down your location, occupation, industry, company, gender etc and combine these things with a few specific events an employer can probably narrow down the offender pretty easily.
This comes to the argument of how a boss is going to stumble on your blog. Afterall, there are a plethora of blogs out there. What are the chances of a superior finding such information? If you are blogging from the office, a sneaky boss could keep a track of the sites that you are visiting on a regular basis. Technically this is a real arsehole thing to do. But being arseholes is unfortunately where some bosses excel. Co-workers can be another source of leaked information. A co-worker may know of your blog, take offense to what has been posted and take the matter further. Ever googled your name? Just imagine googling your name and finding an image of yourself caught in the act of picking your nose in your cubicle with some smart caption along the lines of “Another example of Joe Shmoes repulsive behaviour!” - A great reason to stop using full names in posts.
Another less likely possibility of your blog getting uncovered is the less likely chance that whatever you’ve written has become so wildly popular that it becomes an international or regional cult phenomenon. Now the chances are remote, but its not to say it can’t happen. Especially if you’ve got some juicy story of corporate espionage or other similar sensitive type information. All you need is for just the right person to find you’re rant to convert a small affair into a public affair. To cover your ass, if for whatever brain explosion reason you do make claims about your work or learning environment that could fall under the category of defamation, make sure you’ve got foolproof evidence to backup any claim.
Check back tomorrow for more discussion….
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