Transparency of TMI
There is a fascinating story in today’s National Business Review about some alleged liquidation hi-jinks. Basically it is about the suitability of a parade of possible liquidators, but our interest is not in the substance of story but the issue of over-disclosure.
The story notes that one of apparent liquidators, in a series of them, was one Melissa Watson. It went on to state that not only was Ms Watson unqualified for the role, she could not be impartial. The grounds for the lack of partiality being she was one of three friends of the person whose building was being put into liquidation, Brent Clode.
The alleged source of this friendship? Mr Clode’s page on the social networking website Facebook!
This raises a number of questions, like: what is the status of your relationship if you are not featured on the Facebook page of someone you know well; if you are not on Facebook, do you have any friends, or does anyone care about your friends; and, is Facebook a form of over-disclosure, or plain honest transparency?
This story does illustrate the TMI-factor of social networks.
Tags: Facebook, Liquidation, NBR, Social Networks
November 9th, 2009 at 3:10 pm
Hi Paul,
I think this is a really interesting story. I think it’s a little extreme and possibly presumptive of the potential employer to assume a relationship status simply from having a connection on Facebook. Maybe there are restrictions against it but could they not have just asked Ms Watson in an interview what the connection was? If she was unqualified for the role then this would have been the main reason for not employing her regardless of her networks. In industries such as this potential impartiality is definately a major concern but you can’t apply that to all sectors and employment situations.
For me it raises more of a question of – when does making assumptions like this in an employment situation change from being diligent in investigating a potential applicant, to simply brushing off a potentially good applicant just on the grounds of their networking and online communication habits? It borders on potential discrimination if a person’s personal life is being investigated unreasonably.
I don’t think it illustrates the TMI-factor of social networks as that’s really dependant on who the person is, what industry they work in and their own personal style of communication using these networks. Obviously we all need to be careful of what we post on the internet but that really depends on the context and circumstances of any one individual. If anything it illustrates the TMI and danger factor of anyone one person posting information on the internet. The internet is a certainly a powerful everyday investigative and research tool which can often be used unethically and sometimes flippantly in not checking sources and facts correctly.
Anyone Googled themselves recently…
November 9th, 2009 at 3:22 pm
One more thing to add…
An example of positive TMI context in relation to this story would be when applying for jobs in an industry like Public Relations, potential employers can see what journalists or media contacts you are ‘friends’ with simply by just checking your facebook list. Not neccasarily a huge bonus but an extra talking point for when you go for an interview.
November 10th, 2009 at 11:59 am
Simon, makes some sound points. While it is necessary to be careful about what we post, times and mores are also changing. When I made my first flight to Australia in the early 60′s men wore suits on the plane and women their best frocks. Today jandals and short are not uncommon for both sexes. So what some of us regard as unusual today, might be readily accept tomorrow.