Earlier this month there was a story in some of the UK newspapers – it didn’t appear in The Sun as there were no breasts involved – about some new software that enabled companies to spy on their customers who were making critical remarks on the Internet. Did I find the news shocking – no! What I found amazing is that companies are obviously paying for software to do a job that can be done free of charge. The Daily Mail reports: ”
Some of Britain’s biggest firms were last night accused of ‘spying’ on their customers after they admitted ‘listening in’ on disgruntled conversations on the internet. The companies include BT, which uses specially developed software to scan for negative comments about it on websites including Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.”
Apparently this devil software that threatens all of our freedom – it’s called Debatescape – has been developed by BT to monitor social networking sites for customers leaving critical or snarky remarks about companies and their products.
The Mail continues: “However, one disgruntled customer said he was stunned to be approached by the firm after he posted angry comments on his personal Facebook page. The BT business customer, who has asked not be named, wrote that he thought ‘BT are just a bunch of unaccountable, business shafting, useless b*******’.
“Within hours he had been contacted by someone calling themselves ‘BT Sarah’, saying: ‘I saw your post about having problems with your BT services. Is there anything I can do to help?’
“The customer, who runs an online business, said: ‘I did not expect what I was saying to my friends to be seen. I have since changed my privacy settings so only my friends can access my page. What happened was quite Big Brotherish and sinister.”
Leaving aside the unbelievable naivety of the customer, any company worth its salt will be monitoring social networking sites for critical remarks so it can improve its reputation and counter any damaging remarks. It’s one of the key aspects of social media, positive PR and the like.
A quick search on Collecta for “daily mail criticism” reveals “RT @jopkins: Confirmed: 54% of traffic the Daily Mail website is people checking out just how bad it really is – http://bit.ly/aa7TzS” – and I didn’t have to pay a penny for digging that one out in seconds!
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