AAerSTL

Just wanted to share that I recently had an EXP Agent who was less than helpful (seems to be the norm these days) browse my LinkedIn profile. Yes I understand that it's 2015 and peope have access to personal information you share online but I still think in the context of commercial relationships (such as with AA employees I have never met) privacy needs to be respected.

In fact I am connected on LinkedIn with many AA employees I have known over the years but this was unwanted and unprofessional IMO. Several years back there was a case of this with a SPG property manager browsing people's profiles with the purpose of attempting to verify eligibility for corporate rates and SPG defended the actions a consistent with their privacy and social media policies. In this case the AA agent had no legimiate reason germane to my reservations to search for me. Is it fair for me to feel my privacy was violated here or am I way off base? Appreciate any insights from other AA FTers.

Thanks.

JumboJet

A little creepy but not surprising. It is the information age.

Airbridge

You made a public profile that was available for her to browse. Where exactly is the privacy expectation in that which you decide to make public?

koje581

^

You can make your account private, and no one can view it unless you give them access. It is not the fault of the agent that you choose to have a public profile.

bdemaria

Can you be sure that the agent you spoke with was the same person who looked at your profile? And, if so, can you be sure it happened after you interacted with the less than helpful agent?


If the answers to both of these is a definitive, verifiable yes - then I definitely say its creepy/unprofessional. - but a violation of privacy? Not if your LinkedIn preferences allowed it.

I might send AA a note about it, but only if I could prove the above scenarios definitively - b/c there are alternative explanations, most notably, since you are "connected" w/other AA employees, LinkedIn suggested a connection and this employee viewed it.

AAerSTL

I don't have a FB profile for this reason. My firm wants our profiles accessible to clients, prospects and others to view. But yes certain information on my profile is accessible but on principle I feel the agent was unprofessional and overstepped boundaries.

imapilotaz

I personally would send a note to AA about it. I think its quite unprofessional.

JonNYC

Yeah.... I'm a little torn on this one too, kinda agree with both of the above, but probably wouldn't be too stressed about it, personally. I can see the concern though.

malexander131

As an ex-salesperson who leverages LinkedIn extensively, I tell people who think LinkedIn browsing is creepy- you put it on the internet.

LovePrunes

NO NO NO
Utterly ridiculous. What do you want AA to do about it?
I keep thinking of a child in elementary school class raising her hand and saying "Teacher, he's looking at me. Can you make him stop?"

Nothing inappropriate about searching for people's names on a public database, sheesh. If you don't like people you don't know very well looking up info about you on thee web, better get off the grid, including posts on Flyertalk

JonNYC

I just got inspired!

I just zapped my linkedin account entirely this very second.

cynicAAl

Do you understand that stuff on the internet is public ? There is no expectation of privacy. You put it out there for all to see. Then you complain when someone sees it ? Makes no sense.

Do you feel the same way if someone looks you up in a public phone book ?

LETTERBOY

Then you should have a talk with your bosses about them requiring you to put your information on public view. But that's not AA's fault. If you put something on public view, you really don't have any grounds to complain if someone looks at it.

FWAAA

I'm confused. I don't do most social media, including whatever it is the OP is talking about. But it sounds like this:

I put a bunch of my personal info online because my employer wants me to, and on this social media platform, I'm actually online "friends" with a bunch of AA employees I actually know and like, but this employee is a stranger (and not so helpful as an employee), and I feel violated because they looked at my social media profile.

Easy answer? Edit that profile down to the minimum required by the employer and then don't worry about who looks at it. Doesn't bother me if people look me up in the phone book (and, obviously, we never know who looks us up in an offline source).

There is no legitimate expectation of privacy if the profile is public.

AAerSTL

No longer have a landline (dropped it in 2008) and when I did I PAID to have an unpublished listing (another dissuasion in and of itself).