Corporate or industrial espionage is a type of spying that is made much easier by online tools like Facebook.

You may not be aware of the fact that people can search for company names to find out who works at specific companies. Even if you have your privacy settings set so that only Friends can see your employer, a search on your employer's name may still tell the person searching that there was a "job match" in your profile.

Try doing a search in Facebook on the term "Software Specialist" followed by the name of a high tech company in your city (or whatever city you choose to put in your Facebook profile). You might be surprised by what you see next to the field "Matches" in the results. It may say, "Job, Title and Network", meaning that this person may be a Software Specialist at that company. Furthermore, any name that has a highlighted link means you can even view their profile and possibly find out a lot more about their interests and associates. See how easy it is?

If your employer knew that a competitor or foreign government could target its employees to be "friends", it might prefer that you didn't put your employer's name in your profile.

For a more technical, in-depth discussion of how sensitive, proprietary information can easily be given away by unknowing employees through Facebook, and how to protect against it, the following article might be good to show your IT guys and even your managers... Click HERE.

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