Porsche Restricts Access to Facebook, Other Social Media Sites

Online social media environments, instant messengers and many other computer software applications are often banned for employees of multiple large corporations, mostly because they could instantly become a reason for decreased productivity. However, German carmaker Porsche had a different goal when it decided to restrict access to social media communities such as Facebook and a few other websites: it tried to prevent espionage as much as possible.

The idea is pretty simple actually. Porsche believes that accessing these platforms using the company's workstations could expose it to a number of risks, including data leakage to foreign intelligence service who might spy on the workers to snatch precious information. Such details could be posted on Facebook profiles or other services that are not providing enough privacy settings.

"These services imply a certain threat potential," Dirk Erat, a Porsche spokesman was quoted as saying by Autonews.

Social networking platforms have registered an impressive growth in the last years, with automotive companies migrating towards this kind of solutions to promote their products and campaign. Basically, it's the cost that makes the difference, as such a solution requires no funds and can easily stir up interest in certain models among Internet users.

For example, a report issued by GOSO back in February revealed that 25.5% of dealerships have their own Facebook page and 10.9 % have created a Twitter account. Additionally, Chrysler is the most active carmaker on Facebook, followed by Buick, Chevrolet, Mazda and Jeep. On Twitter, Toyota is the number one brand, while Chevrolet comes second.