法国宜家监视顾客犯众怒

    刚刚看完《国土安全》（Homeland）的大结局（别担心，没剧透），今早就在街上碰到了剧中达尔•阿达尔的扮演者F•莫里•亚伯拉罕（是的，我傻乎乎地脱口而出，“昨晚干得真漂亮”），我满脑子都在想间谍什么的。我在想，要把一份情报工作干得出色多难啊，而要把一项低级的情报任务搞砸又是多么的容易。

    于是，我不禁想起了宜家（IKEA）法国公司正在上演的故事，它的高管正在因为涉嫌暗中监视员工和顾客而接受调查。正如《纽约时报》（New York Times）所报道的那样，这些高管据称聘请了私人侦探来挖掘员工、愤怒的消费者和其他人身上的污点。公司前首席执行官让-路易•巴约已被开除，而且调查还可能导致其他人遭到刑事指控。

    我很遗憾地表示，这是相当愚蠢的事情。由于互联网的存在，消费者们早就已经在心甘情愿地向宜家这样的公司提供几乎每一点私人信息。谁付0.99美元买了一张驯鹿图案的桌布，谁花了14个小时才将一张Micke系列的桌子拼装起来，宜家统统知道。它还知道谁在网上买了什么东西，谁突然间需要换一张更大的床，以及谁最近爱上了园艺。这家公司之所以知道这些，原因是因为顾客们乐于提供这些信息来换取特别折扣和/或免费瑞典肉圆。

    那么，宜家到底涉嫌干了些别的什么事情？除此之外，它还会打探一些人的个人生活，包括那些投诉服务的顾客以及请长病假的员工，希望能就此让他们的主张站不住脚。它利用了人们的分享意愿，以此来对付人们。这样就把顾客变成了敌人，而不是合作伙伴。这种做法也造成了顾客的反弹，影响波及远至法国之外，对这家380亿美元的瑞典家具巨头造成了冲击。

    像很多遇到麻烦的成功组织一样，宜家的罪过在某种程度上是它成功的副产品。经济实力并不意味着你可以利用业务便利，更不要说职务便利。当今时代毫无安全感可言，必须记住一点，保障人们对隐私权的幻觉仍然至关重要，就算它只是一个幻觉。信任也是如此。（财富中文网）  

    Having just watched the Homeland finale (no spoilers, calm down) and then having passed F. Murray Abraham, a.k.a. Dar Adal, on the street this morning (and yes, I said "good job last night" like a doofus), I've got spying on the brain. I'm thinking about just how hard it seems to do a great human intelligence job well -- and I'm also thinking about just how easy it is to screw up a low-level intelligence gig.

    Which brings me to the ongoing saga of IKEA France, whose top executives are under investigation for spying on both their own employees and their customers. As the New York Times has reported, executives allegedly hired private investigators to dig up dirt on employees, irate consumers, and others. The former chief executive, Jean-Louis Baillot, has been fired, and the investigation could lead to criminal charges against others.

    This is, I'm sorry to say, pretty dumb stuff. Customers have already, thanks to the Internet, willingly given companies like IKEA just about every bit of personal information they possess. IKEA knows who paid $0.99 for a reindeer tablecloth and who spent 14 hours putting together the Micke desk. It knows who orders what online, who suddenly needs a larger bed, and who's taken up gardening of late. And it knows it because its customers happily volunteered that information in return for special discounts and/or free Swedish meatballs.

    So what did IKEA allegedly do? It went beyond that and actually dug into the personal lives of customers that had made service-related complaints or employees with extended sick leave in hopes of discrediting them. It took that willingness to share and turned it against them. It made its customers enemies, not partners. And in doing so, it created a customer backlash that is rippling far beyond France and into the heart of the $38 billion Swedish furniture behemoth.

    Like many successful organizations that stumble, IKEA's transgressions are in some ways a function of its success. Economic power doesn't mean taking advantage of those that keep you in business, not to mention in office. And in this era of security-gone-beserk, it's important to remember that the illusion of privacy, however illusory it may in fact be, still counts. And so does trust.