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    This week, I want to talk about personal privacy once more, but this time with the focus on how it’s affecting the way we work and interact with our colleagues. The reason is we’ve just launched Digital Work Life, the latest iteration of AVG Digital Diaries, our ongoing research project into the issues that affect us as we adopt a fully ‘connected’ digital lifestyle.

    This seventh installment of Digital Diaries includes responses from 4,000 adults in 10 countries in relation to cyber-bullying in the workplace. You can read it in full here, and I urge you to do so because it gives a fascinating insight into how digital communications and social media are influencing everyday workplace situations.

    The headline statistic is the fact that over half (53%) of the respondents believe that ‘social media has eroded privacy in the workplace’. That’s perhaps not so surprising when you think about how easily social media can pervade our lives, and how many of us are also friends with colleagues on social networks. But even so, it’s a figure that should make you think about exactly what you do and do not want to share in the workplace – especially when you consider that nearly one in 10 (9%) of the respondents has had a manager use information against them that they had found on a social media site (in the US, it’s as high as 13%).

    To me, as the CEO of a large organization, and as a manager of many years, I find that last fact quite disturbing and a little disappointing. But again, I don’t find it surprising: what was once perhaps gossip around a watercooler or a frustrated rant in a bar now so often takes place in the digital realm. And there it is catalogued for other people to see and also share, including your colleagues. For sure, you can (and most certainly should) lock down your privacy settings, but if it goes online or into an email or IM, it’s worth remembering it’s very difficult to control and that digital content has a legacy and your digital footprint stays with you.

    Another insight I found interesting in Digital Work Life was that only half of respondents knew if their company had an official policy on cyber-bullying, and a quarter said their workplace definitely didn’t. Recommended practice for companies is to have an email and electronic communications policy, which can show best practices as to what is and isn’t acceptable from employees. Most of it is simple common sense, especially when it comes to interacting with colleagues, but with having a policy there is a concrete framework to operate within should an undesired situation arise.”But the provision of a policy shouldn’t absolve employees of responsibility. In fact, policy or no policy, employees should be responsible for what they post online on social networks and ensure it is not bringing themselves or their company into disrepute or harming their colleagues.

    Of course, Digital Work Life is just a snapshot of the modern connected workplace, but it shows how our professional lives and behavior are fast evolving in line with technology. It will be interesting to revisit workplace privacy in the future to see what has changed, but it is heartening to know that AVG will have at least played a part in helping workers to protect what is precious to them.

    JR

     

    For more information about the latest stage of Digital Diaries Results, visit the AVG Media Center

    For more information about Digital Diaries, visit www.avgdigitaldiaries.com

    Last week, I wrote about Facebook’s new Graph Search tool and the potential implications it could have on your personal privacy.