Searching for something to write about tonight (and let’s be honest…in these very hot last days of summer, who really feels like writing anything?), I ran across this article about how someone in the AOL research department gave information regarding customer searches in an attempt to help with some research study. Â Techcrunch has a good post and many good comments about the subject.

I know a little something about the subject of company employees speaking to people they shouldn’t and giving out information they shouldn’t. Â While managing PR for an Internet company which had gone public, it was a constant struggle to keep people from giving information to technology partners which were creating articles for their sites…or even worse, to reporters or analysts who were playing the dialing game trying to get someone to give them information when I had put the brakes on a story.

Look, it happens everywhere.  Even in a company with 500 employees like the public company I worked for.  It is extremely difficult to control all contact of every employee with outside entities.  I can’t even imagine what it’s like for AOL to control what their employees say and give to outside parties.  A good media policy that is enforced helps.  Support of senior management helps.  I wrote our policy and had strong support of senior management.  However, we did have slip-ups even in our small company.

I am quite certain that it’s AOL’s policy to participate in research with outside entities, provided that the information given strictly adheres to their customer privacy agreements (as they have said).  But it is clear the person who gave this small database of information to others should receive extra training regarding the approval protocols, and what information is and is not acceptable to share with outside parties.

I definitely feel for the person that did this as well as their supervisor and AOL’s PR team. Â Keeping information inside the fold (espeically in such a large conglomerate) is definitely not as cut and dried as some would think.

Maybe I’m not the norm, but I always assume that any information I give a company I do business with could either intentionally or mistakenly be shared with any one at any time. Â This is why I check my credit report frequently…and so should everyone.