Actiance has released an upgrade to its social media monitoring platform that allows financial services firms to keep track of changes made to employee LinkedIn profiles.
The new facility is available as part of Actiance's Socialite platform, which enables companies to manage access and content shared across over 160 features on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
Under the upgrade, Socialite intercepts end-user edits of LinkedIn profiles and automatically re-routes the changes to a compliance officer for review. The reviewer is then able to identify the changes made and can either accept or reject the edits as well as making comments.
"LinkedIn is increasingly used amongst professionals to keep in contact with clients and to reach out in a trusted network to new business. However, for regulated firms it can present a challenge to manage, approve and keep track of employee profiles, potentially placing them out of compliance and at risk of hefty fines," comments Vincent de Gennaro, VP Emea of Actiance. "In addition, many people use their profiles as a précis of their CV and having employees giving away details of the projects they are currently involved in isn't always in the organisation's best interest."
Finextra verdict: A LinkedIn profile is more than just a professional calling card, it also acts as an as an open, on-the-record personal CV for perusal by prospective employers and recruitment firms. Compliance issues aside, the Actiance programme gives companies an unwarranted direct line into staff career goals (as employees polish their CV in anticipation of a change in direction), and the power to block updates as they see fit. Is this taking Big Brother-style intrusion into employee rights too far?