People have expressed plenty of paranoia about social network analysis techniques that exploit existing corporate data stores. So, it shouldn't be surprising to see reports of companies that are selling their tools to snoop on their employees. Patrick Lambe gives us the reference, Shhhh... the IP Addresses Have Ears:
Well it had to happen. Social network analysis in organisations has long been promoted as a way of spotting opportunities for improving collaboration and knowledge flows. Network mapping software pioneer Valdis Krebs has just celebrated his twentieth birthday in the business.
Now, via Bill Ives, a nasty twist on social (or organisational) network analysis that brings us to the dark side of the force.
The corporate data stores are owned by the corporation. So, they can decide to do anything they wish with their data. We already know that most large companies monitor what comes across their internet. And they block access to a variety of online services. It's not too much of a stretch to think they might want to use SNA-like analyses for monitoring their employees.
The thing is that SNA is an analysis of the flow of trust across the network. This kind of analysis, if abused, is going to kill off the flow of trust. If email becomes an untrustworthy communication mechanism, then any SNA based on that data cannot be used to get a true X-Ray of the organization.