TUC: Let users access Facebook
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The debate highlights the growing problems surrounding the consumerisation of IT and the emergence of...
The Trades Union Congress (TUC) has publicly criticised companies who restrict workers’ online access, following the news that 50% of employers have barred their employees from accessing the popular social networking site Facebook while at work.
Research issued by security company Sophos found that 43% of workers surveyed are completely unable to access the site, while a further 7% reported that access is restricted to certain contexts. The news will surprise few workers, particularly those in law firms, who have long-been subject to access bans on a raft of web-based applications, including personal email.
But the TUC has seen fit this week to enter the debate, defending the rights of workers to access the site and others of a similar nature in order that they can communicate with their friends, access information and co-ordinate their social life.
Such activities would traditionally have been performed on the phone or in person, argues the TUC, and would therefore not have been prohibited.
Many employers remain concerned, however, that Facebook and its more established peers such as MySpace and Bebo, drain worker productivity, while acting as a conduit for web-based malware.
While the TUC acknowledges these concerns it argues that a blanket ban on the site represents an over-reaction. Businesses should draw up clear policies on the appropriate use of social networking sites, in the same way organisations issue policies regarding email and Instant Messenger, it argues.
The debate highlights the wider problem of the consumerisation of IT, whereby young, tech-savvy end users increasingly expect to deploy and access applications, once restricted to their private lives, within their working environment.
It also points up the growing security and reputational concerns surrounding Web 2.0 technologies, which allows users to generate their own content which often includes information of a sensitive or personal nature.
Increasingly, however, employers wishing to attract and retain young talent have had to tolerate the technological demands of this new generation of users.
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