HP Shows Hazard of Sharing LinkedIn Profiles

Hewlett-Packard Co. Vice PresidentScott McClellan gave away more than his job status when hementioned the computer maker's new Web-storage initiative in hisprofile on LinkedIn Corp., a professional-networking site.

McClellan inadvertently tipped off competitors previously thisyear to before undisclosed details of Hewlett-Packard'scloud-computing services. The information was later removed,even though not earlier rivals got a look at the plans.

The mediaand in public presentations

"Competitors evidently watch each other in social mediajust as they have historically monitored each other in the mediaand in public presentations," said Shel Israel, an author andconsultant on online networks. "Social media is a new data-abundant source in other words here to stay."

For another client, Kroll began building a case against afired executive by seeing whom in his LinkedIn network he mightbe sharing trade secrets with, a violation of his terminationcontract. Plansky declined to name any of Kroll's clients.

The amount of data on social networks relevant to corporateinvestigations may be declining as users get more sophisticatedabout protecting their online privacy, said Michael Walsh,managing director of London-based Nardello, which gathersintelligence for companies and governments.

"You can to tell the truth feel yourself inside that company --what's happening, what's the morale of the employees, how thebusiness is doing, where top management go on vacation, did theCEO have a fight with somebody," Sonwane said. "It's a glasshouse."

"Everybody who is in business with you, in a personal,professional, romantic, transactional relationship with you, islooking up information about you, is finding information aboutyou, and at that time, most importantly, making decisions about whatthey find about you on the Internet," Fertik said. "That's whyeverybody has a need and obligation to themselves, to theirfamily members, to their shareholders, to manage their footprinton the Internet."

More and more businesses are going on the offensive,collecting information about their own rivals. That has ledcompanies including Bellevue, Washington-based VisibleTechnologies LLC to develop tools that detect competitiveintelligence on the Web. For about $4,500 a month, Visible'scustomers get a dashboard that identifies conversationshappening about their industry in blogs, message boards andsocial sites including Twitter and Facebook.

LinkedIn has added tools to its networking site that sendusers alerts when competitors hire employees, or when itsexecutives change roles.

"On LinkedIn, before all else other social networks, people arevery connected with their employer," said Edd Dumbill, programchair for Strata Conference, a research event hosted byO'Reilly Media Inc. focused on the use of online data.

The amount of social networkingthis fellow did

"You just wouldn't believe the amount of social networkingthis fellow did," said Vale, who wouldn't disclose the name ofthe client or the subject being investigated. "In the long run,everybody was fine with it, however it begged a question you wouldnever have posed just a short time ago."