The topic from this semester which surprised me the most came out of the visit from Gretchen. This guest speaker discussed her job responsibilities. She also discussed how her company tracks any mention of their company name and the names of some of their top executives on the Internet. This could be on websites or on blogs, as we learned the hard way after some of us mentioned Gretchen’s full name along with the company’s name in our blogs. This caused our blogs and her name to be flagged. Previous to this I didn’t know that companies performed such searches on a daily basis. I had thought this would only be done when there were specific threats to a company, if an individual was in the news for some negative reason, or if an individual had done something they were hoping to keep out of the news. I was surprised that posted photos of executives were searched for their own name or the company’s name. I had thought personal photos would be considered personal property and could be posted as wanted. Gretchen’s company is very protective of its reputation.
If I was an executive at this company I think this would make me feel uneasy about the company tracking any mention of my name. It could show up in the most innocent of manners, like a family website or as participating in a fundraiser or charity, but still be flagged. This makes me wonder if my company performs similar searches and to what extent. It also makes me wonder what else my company might be doing to track me, even if they are trying to protect and monitor the reputation of the company.
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