Security and Compliance Controls for Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter Offer Monitoring, Archiving and eDiscovery of Social Networking Content

By Stephanie Jordan
in

FaceTime Communications  announced yesterday that it has added social network compliance and feature controls for Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Designed to help organizations meet regulatory compliance, such as FINRA’s Regulatory Notice 10-06 and to aid in the prevention of accidental data leakage, the controls allow posts to be pre-approved, logged and archived or blocked if they do not meet company policy.

“Most companies have more to fear from accidental data leakage on social media sites than malicious theft,” says Kailash Ambwani CEO of FaceTime Communications. “Individuals and teams within all sizes of organizations are turning to social media to collaborate, often without considering the consequences of collaborating in what is in effect a public place. Even the most diligent of employees can make the occasional error in judgment, which can have serious consequences if not prevented.”

FaceTime’s Unified Security Gateway (USG) allows an organization to control how an employee uses specific features within social media sites. The company offers examples like: allowing users to only view Twitter messages, but not post; update a Facebook status but not play Farmville; or post to LinkedIn but not be able to recommend. FaceTime’s USG “moderator controls” allow organizations to hold status updates and comments for review prior to posting. Moderators can approve, comment upon or reject and block posts. Once approved, posts are visible on the social media site.

Regulatory bodies, such as FINRA, OTS and the FSA, have made it clear that social media constitutes electronic messaging and that the applicable rules and guidelines must be adhered.

“Social networking tools are extraordinarily useful and can generate new marketing, revenue and other opportunities”, said Michael Osterman, principal of Osterman Research.  “However, social networking is a two-edged sword – as useful as these tools are, they can create enormous risks for any organization.  The ability to monitor and manage social networking communications allows organizations to realize the benefits of these tools while at the same time minimizing the risk from their inappropriate use.”

Published May 20, 2010