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Social Networking and IC Technologies - Benefits and Potential Dangers

By Brian Boyd, VTHC Secretary
11 October 2011
The modern union movement is not like the Luddites of the past. We have embraced the computer age and the ever growing, amazing range of information technologies, as well as the social networking phenomena.

All unions now have websites. The use of emails to communicate with memberships is wide spread, if not universal, in 2011.

Many individual union campaigns have a unique website assigned to them. Information is shared and spread far and wide, much faster than ever before. This is all for the good.

However questions of privacy and security are also coming to the fore.

Recently ‘Facebook’ has been questioned in terms of how it monitors the online activities of millions of people and organisations. The tracking of users, even when they have logged out, has become a scandal. Apparently ‘Facebook’’ can use tracking “cookies” to trace internet users across the board. Information is and has been gleaned by ‘Facebook’ and the question becomes - how is this information used.

The Age editorial of the 5/10/11 raised the concern that ‘Facebook’ tracking activities could lead to encouraging… “the sharing [of] increasing amounts of personel information… leading to possible security breaches and a ‘tempting target’ for stalkers, government agents or employers” (emphasis added).

The London Financial Times recently said: “It is not your Facebook page; its Facebook’s”.

Unions and other progressive organisations should be concerned about unwarranted intrusions into their day to day activities.

Over the decades many sections of the union movement have had their phones systematically bugged and officials and rank and file activists followed by the likes of ASIO, the Australian Federal Police and States Special Branches.

Today many of those who were in the “gumshoe brigade” have been replaced by on-line snoopers. Nothing has changed.

Modern C.I.T is very useful, but just like the telephone of old, it still requires careful use. The Murdoch/”News of The World” hacking scandal is a handy reminder.