Huge spike in companies blocking Facebook, Twitter: study

From: http://www.windsorstar.com/jobs/job-listings/Huge+spike+companies+blocking+Facebook+Twitter+study/1913402/story.html

A growing number of employers are refusing to be Facebook's friend.

Companies around the world are increasingly choking off their employees' access to social-networking websites, such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace, says ScanSafe, one of the Internet's biggest security providers.

In the past six months alone, there's been a 20 per cent increase in the number of companies blocking such websites, says ScanSafe, which released a study on the phenomenon this week.

"When web filtering first became an option for companies, we generally saw them block access to typical categories, such as pornography, illegal activities and hate and discrimination," said ScanSafe spokesman Spencer Parker.

"I imagine, before long, social networking will be up there with pornography in terms of categories blocked."

The company says 76 per cent of its customers are now choosing to stonewall social-networking sites, a higher percentage than those who block online categories such as shopping, weapons and alcohol.

ScanSafe analyzed more than a billion web searches each month for its study.

Parker said social-networking sites can open the door to viruses, as well as being a drain on productivity and bandwidth.

James Norrie, the associate dean and professor at Ryerson University's Ted Rogers School of Management, harshly criticized the trend.

He said banning employees from using social-networking sites is "one of the most awful things businesses can do to themselves."

"The whole notion of trying to take technology away from (workers) is as good as spanking them and sending them to their room," said Norrie.

Instead, companies should be teaching their employees to use social media so they can promote the company's brand online, he suggested.

Taking the privilege away will only encourage skilled workers to seek out more dynamic employers, he said.

"What employer that wants to be seen as progressive and attractive for a new generation of workers would think that it was good for their employee brand to block access to social computing sites?" Norrie said.

"If they keep putting their heads in the sand, they'll fall so far behind that someone else will be eating their lunch."

Norrie didn't dispute the research was genuine, but called ScanSafe's study "self-serving."

David Zweig, who teaches human resources at the University of Toronto, said ScanSafe's global numbers are a good reflection of the current trend here in Canada.

"We don't have very good stats in terms of how much employee monitoring takes place in Canada, but it is certainly on the increase," he said, adding Canadian employers are also increasingly monitoring e-mail.

"Employees must assume that what they're doing at work is being monitored, and act accordingly."

Zweig said when people are spending time on social-networking sites they're not working, so it's easy to see why employers would want to block employees from accessing the sites.

"They want to stop people from potentially wasting time at work surfing these sites, especially if it's not job relevant," he said.

Still, Zweig said employers need to communicate clearly to their employees what sites they're blocking and why or face the prospect of employee deviancy from workers who feel that their employers don't trust them or that they're being treated unfairly.

"They'll do things to get around the electronic gaze, for example," he said. "It can actually create a vicious cycle where doing this actually creates more deviant behaviour to get away from these restrictions and controls."

ScanSafe also found an increase in the number of companies choosing to block websites about travel and sports, as well as web-based e-mail.