Facebook is Evil. Update…Now Less Evil.

The recent popularization of corporate-sanctioned Facebook usage may appear to be a boon to those hungry employees looking for business connections, but the reality is that few social networking sites are designed with corporate privacy in mind.

Facebook’s disturbing changes to their terms of service has prompted a legal backlash. Numerous articles have been written about how Facebook has an almost unrestricted right to use anything you put on their site…even after you’ve asked them to remove your account.

The problem is that this isn’t a new issue. In such a public forum, how can you be ensure the security of company data? It provides a decentralized forum and who’s to say what your employees are saying? Does it meet the criteria of the company? Are there privacy or HR concerns? It didn’t take long for PR folks and salespeople to figure out that it was a useful networking tool, but few companies have a solid policy in place that lets their people know what is acceptable fodder for posting. Most, like old guard conglomerates, simply blocked the sites altogether. Others, like this law firm, just seem confused.

The main concern is that Facebook and its ilk dictate what happens to your information, not you. And, given the large amount of information that ends up on the site, it’s a growing challenge for your company to better understand exactly what your goals and liabilities are. Maybe you’re not scared off by the privacy issues and the benefits outweigh the concerns. Either way, I’d suggest that you get the right people together and spell out what your employees should know.

The fact that even Facebook is confused doesn’t help matters.

UPDATE:
Facebook’s newest plan is to let the users offer some input, now that temporarily reverted to their original terms of service. Now if they could just clear up the CIA conspiracy thing…

UPDATE UPDATE (12/9/2009):
Facebook has made some more changes to their security settings. We think it best to review them. PC World has a good intro.