Who doesn't know Virgin Australia, for
those of you that don’t know, it is not Australia’s National carrier but a
privately ran company owned by the business man, Richard. I always assumed it
was her National carrier.
With the recent integration of business
affairs with social media, there are certain obligations that must be kept
sacred so that she does not fall into a legal hole.
Effective
Information: The airline has the moral duty to
monitor and make sure that the information given to her clients (travellers) is
concise and accurate and also given in a timely manner. Such information as
regards to flight details and sudden change in schedule should be directed to
the travellers in due time.
This brings us to the people in charge
of the information dispersal or the systems capable of providing such
information. With the over sophistication of social technology and technology
at large, it is still a possibility for it to fail people, therefore competent
people should be put to monitor those technologies so as to avoid technology
error which will be due to human error.
Accurate Information: Consider a scenario whereby wrong sales information is being
transmitted via Facebook purposely by the social media manager or better
still the system responsible for pricing is hijacked and compromised by a
grumpy employee. In this example, an employee is distributing false and
misleading information that will lure potential customers into a trap. The
language or medium of communicating that is supposed to be made plain and easy
is being compromised. This information security threat would lead to lawsuits
and unhappy customers.
Security: Confidential information can be breached by hackers or people that
have the technical know-how on how to carry out an attack on the
company’s IT infrastructure. For instance, the airline’s blog or news
feed that is responsible for carrying out information feeding to her customers
could be hacked and this could lead to legal consequences for the airline
as a result of the attacker putting misleading information that causes
the client’s duress or hardship. Such news feeds compromised could
include core databases, core servers and core IT services that is responsible
for serving the people.
Misconstrued
Information: Advertising is a very interesting and
powerful tool that helps pass a message over and over again. Now can you
imagine a seemingly innocent looking advertisement that appears good and
everyone is fine with that, but some people don't like it because it creatively
maligns their person or they simply don't like it at all and they sue.
Privacy Breach. Technical glitch making customer confidential information been
breached and posted online, it sure sounds familiar.
Defamation: Slandering of other businesses can lead you into hot soup.
This involves saying not true things against other businesses, including
individuals and engaging in acts that can damage the other company’s
reputation. Although this maybe common when disgruntled travellers miss their
flights, it is still a possibility to escalate to something of legal
proportions when done by an employee or even an employer harassing the business
integrity of another in a way to reap results.
In conclusion, a strict social media
policy should be enforced that will cement the varying loopholes of social
media with business in the aviation industry in general, not only Virgin. Such
policies should address confidentially, information accuracy, effectiveness
and information privacy. It should include acts and precautionary measures on
employers as well as employees so that the aviation industry can drive smoothly
without taking a break to the courthouse.
Qantas is the National Carrier of
Australia. Now you know. J
