Social media monitoring may be considered an integral component of social media strategies because it gives marketers the ability to discover public conversations about their brands and, if necessary, respond to posters directly or to their posts. Opponents of monitoring define it as spying and intolerable invasions of privacy. Because of privacy scandals in 2010 surrounding Facebook and Google, the public in general is extremely sensitive to privacy. Privacy advocates were angered by the ‘outright spying’ There are also fears that the software will be used to spam customers with sales pitches and advertising, or be used by political parties to exert pressure or control.
QUESTION: Is it ethical for a company to engage in social media and email monitoring?