Texas pays company to monitor player's FB accounts?
by matt.h.h on Jan 24, 2012 10:22 AM CST
Email
Print
So I recently visited varsitymonitor's website, a company that monitors athlete's facebook accounts (and other social media sites). Shockingly I discovered that Texas football is their star client. I was wondering to what extent is this true?
I have a friend on a NCAA D1 college sports team who says his University Compliance Office is going to force his entire team to give this company access to all their personal information on facebook. This leads me to ask, do you think its right for a school to require their players to do this? I'm interested in people's opinion. Also does anyone have any information on what Texas actually does?
All comments, FanPosts, and FanShots are the views of the reader-authors who create them.
52 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
To go a step further the university should have total access to a players email and twitter as well
playing for a college is a privilege, not a right. The ability to have complete oversight is the right of the university.. If you don’t want this, then don’t sign up…
This is protection for the university and will become that much more important if they move to the 4 year scholarship model..
JD’s like, "you want some f*&#ing pitching? Here’s all the pitching you can stand. Now choke on it, b*#&hes!"- RCCook
LSB: "Oh s#*t, JD. You crazy!"
+1
If a man in college kills 5 hookers and no one is there to hear it or see it, can he still run for the Senate?
I agree with your ideas
but email is personal….social sites are not (hint the name social).
by RQ on Jan 24, 2012 5:56 PM CST up reply actions
Not email
Publicly-viewable social networking sites, weblogs, etc.? I think that’s reasonable.
"Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'"
― Isaac Asimov
by burntorangehorn on Jan 25, 2012 12:22 PM CST up reply actions
I agree with this
If it is public, it is reasonable to monitor, because it doesn’t involve any sort of privacy invasion. If I as an unaffiliated individual can see it, than it should be OK.
I am on Twitter @jeffchaley
Burnt Orange Nation
Hoop-Math
Emerging Media Professor here...
A few things… First this varsity monitor seems to be basically stealing money. All of the information they provide is public, and all they are doing is compiling and marketing the service to athletic programs… Secondly, sure, it’s wise for a school to monitor the public activities of their athletes online, but that’s not the real issue here…
Why should they monitor their athletes? Because they’re young and make mistakes.
Why do they make mistake? Because they haven’t learned not to. Why haven’t they learned not to? Because no one has taught them.
How about this… Instead of focusing on the symptoms, TREAT THE DAMN DISEASE.
Athletic programs pride themselves in developing young men and teaching them how to live the right way… SO START TEACHING. Stop monitoring and spend more time teaching them how to control their privacy settings and how quickly things spread online. Teach them WHY it’s important to understand how these networks work and what they are and are not in control of.
THESE ARE STUDENTS AND THIS IS SOMETHING THAT THEY SHOULD BE LEARNING… not just being monitored.
On a very basic technical level, even if they were forced to “friend” their service and let the service “follow” them… There’s nothing to stop them from implementing specific privacy settings so that those profiles never saw anything they didn’t want them to… Of course, if they knew how to do that, would we really need to monitor them?
TCU's about to learn what strength of schedule actually means.
Would you also say it is fine for your boss to request the same things of you. After all, working for that company is a privilege too, not a right.
Apples and oranges
These kids are young and typically quite immature. They don’t understand how certain things they may say could hurt the university or the program. Their words could expose the university to liability.
cant say i disagree
When you are a player for the University of Texas you represent not only the football program you represent the University and the State itself. They have a right to make sure you aren’t making an ass of yourself and their image. That’s why that one guy was kicked out of the program after making stupid jokes of a racial manner after the 2008 elections
In The Morning To You
by horns1025 on Jan 24, 2012 12:25 PM CST via mobile reply actions
Loaded Question
University athletic departments have no right to private communications of its student-athletes. The accounts that are being monitored are public social media sites. If a player violates the team’s media policy, their free speech is subject to the same consequences as having an interview with a reporter (see Buck Burnette).
Wow
Control issues much, people? The fact that the vast majority of you have voted yes is disgusting. This is America. Personal freedom is what makes the country great and is the reason why so many sacrifice so much to immigrate here.
This is a choice
If they want to play ball, they have to adhere to the rules. This is a contract they enter into willingly.
Students that don’t make that choice are a different matter.
Well
Some of what people put on social media is even more disgusting…and they pay the price. Like this.
But thats public info, not private info
Twitter is different, all of his tweets were public. In contrast to that incident, we are talking about a university hiring private companies to monitor ALL of a student athlete’s personal information regardless of whether that information can be seen by the public, acquaintances, or just a small circle of intimate friends. I would personally be fine with some monitoring of social media sites, especially public or semi-public content, but that is not what some universities are proposing. Does anyone know exactly what Texas’ policy is?
You're missing the point or you're naive.
Ask Brett Favre, ask Jim Tressel, ask anyone that has ever had “personal” communications come back to bite them in the ass. Have just one friend that forwards your comments or pictures and you’re done. Wright claims that he thought he was having a private conversation. He was told numerous times by his high school coach to stay off Twitter but, in spite of that fact and the fact that he was attending a Catholic school, just couldn’t keep himself from posting and posting graphic content at that. These athletes need protection from themselves at this age. Personally, I think Michigan dodged a bullet and Wright did them a favor by showing his colors before stepping foot on campus. It’s being reported that he just committed to Colorado today, let’s hope he grows up.
Woh woh ... don't go there
They certainly do not get a free education. I won’t go into all the standard arguments people make in the “should players get payed” debate, but please lets not throw out the “free education” card.
We could make a similar statement about the university. That is, the university gives up some risky liability when they get a bunch of labor at ridiculously low cost.
I give up some freedom when I go to work and use the company's resources.
Why is it different when I represent a company, and the players represent a university?
I don’t think a university should have the ability to monitor all things. If the player is using their own computer to email a girlfriend or family, that should not be monitored. But if they are posting anything on the internet, I think that the university should be able to monitor that.
However, I think it’s agreed that we need to know exactly what the policy is before we get all worked up about a privacy issue. It’s worth monitoring though.
I'm confused then
do scholarship athletes pay for it? I was a scholarship athlete and I didn’t have to pay for the portion of school that my athletic scholarship covered. That certainly felt free to me.
"I want to be remembered as the guy who gave his all whenever he was on the field."
-Walter Payton
Your scholarship is conditional on you playing (i.e. labor). Its more like a student on work study or a graduate student who has to teach classes in order to get their scholarship/stipend.
exactly
I don’t understand why this analogy isn’t brought up more often. Social media is one thing, but certianly these students are entitled to some privacy. They are far from the only students on campus getting their education paid for.
When I was in grad school, I didn’t pay a cent for my education. The university did. And they weren’t snooping into my private life.
I know that some of the athletes are more recognized as a representative of their school, but certainly they should have some privacy. A free education doesn’t mean they should have to cede everything to the school.
I am on Twitter @jeffchaley
Burnt Orange Nation
Hoop-Math
I don't have and actually despise Facebook, but...
…it’s my understanding that Facebook is only as private as the privacy/security settings the user chooses for each group/person. The problem there is that the user (i.e. the Texas player) manages the access list, meaning his/her “friends” and their level of access. Who is on what level of access can fluctuate frequently, as can the sensitivity of the content. As such, Facebook and other public social/new media profiles should be treated as if they were completely public. The exception to this would be private messages/email/IM sent via that mechanism, as these are not publicly available, just like email and phone.
"Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'"
― Isaac Asimov
by burntorangehorn on Jan 25, 2012 12:29 PM CST up reply actions
You said it yourself
Your scholarship is conditional on you playing (i.e. labor).
You go ask any collegiate athlete if they equate their playing time to working and 9/10 will tell you no. Playing a sport on the amateur level in exchange for an education is not a job, its a privilege that most cherish.
It is nothing like a graduate student getting a scholarship or stipend. They are not a public face for the university. Football players are. They represent the university on a very visible level and if they are going to represent that university it should be understood that with that comes some sacrifice of freedoms for the greater good.
"I want to be remembered as the guy who gave his all whenever he was on the field."
-Walter Payton
The question is
how much freedom should they have to sacrifice? They are public representatives, I get that. And it is a privilege, I get that too. But there is a limit.
I am on Twitter @jeffchaley
Burnt Orange Nation
Hoop-Math
I agree there is a limit
I’m not advocating for personal email or anything. But I think social networking is fair game.
"I want to be remembered as the guy who gave his all whenever he was on the field."
-Walter Payton
I think that you and I might find common ground...
What test should be used to determine what content is private vs. public? If it is public content, I agree it is fair game to monitor. Email is pretty clearly private, while a blog or open Twitter account is public. The problem with social media is that there is some gray area in the middle. Depending on how you set up your privacy settings, things like facebook can fall in this gray area. If a guy has their facebook page pretty well locked down, isn’t that private? My limited understanding is that the lines can further blur with google+, where you can lock down some things and allow others to be very public.
My view of the test is that it should be related to how easy it is for someone from outside the player’s circle of friends and family it is to gain access. If the player has a lot of Facebook friends, and let’s pretty much anyone see what they are writing, then more monitoring is reasonable, as this isn’t a very private situation. If they have a small circle of friends, and have the privacy stuff locked down, then there should be a limit on what is monitored.
We shouldn’t let the medium (email, facebook, twitter) decide, as much as how widely the message is shared.
I am on Twitter @jeffchaley
Burnt Orange Nation
Hoop-Math
Compliance
In the interest of fairness and to be thorough, you’d have to monitor the same medium/channel for each athlete/student with the same frequency. If you don’t, and the athlete has the ability to change his privacy settings or the site launches Twitter/Facebook/etc version 11.0 (and does it for him) you haven’t adequately controlled for the risk. That’s why coaches are just telling their players to stay off of these sites entirely; they’re not listening but…
I agree with the second part
of your post but on the first i have to disagree. I’m friends with numerous D1 football players at different schools and have met a handful of their teammates. This topic comes up fairly often and they’ve all been in agreement that it is a job. They aren’t saying this in a complaining manner or anything like that but simply saying that the time commitment and energy that goes in to it for them to receive their scholarship makes it equatable to a job.
I agree
the time commitment is equal to a job. However, by standard definition it is not. You are playing a game by choice and go into it full well knowing the time commitment that is required of you. That is the difference.
"I want to be remembered as the guy who gave his all whenever he was on the field."
-Walter Payton
that's fine
I disagree but that’s neither here nor there. I didn’t do a good job of it but I was trying to address your statement that 9/10 players will tell you its not a job. I think that majority of players would certainly equate it job even though it is one that they do cherish and enjoy.
You are one of the many
that have confused the first amendment with what it actually is and some wide reaching statement that says “you can say whatever you want, wherever you want, however you want… and expect zero consequences.”
That viewpoint is disgusting. It’s ignorant. It’s also very poorly thought through.
Use your own logic. The program has a very reputable image. That’s part of what makes the University great and is a big reason why so many are willing to make minimal sacrifices to come here. Allowing a company to monitor your facebook/twitter is nothing of a sacrifice if you’re not doing things you shouldn’t be posting anyway. In fact, for the vast majority, it’s not a sacrifice at all.
It's also worth mentioning that freedom of speech is freedom from the government, not from UT, no?
"Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'"
― Isaac Asimov
by burntorangehorn on Jan 29, 2012 10:20 AM CST up reply actions
Yes, the school is investing in them
They are representing the school. Plus, this is a learning opportunity for them when and if they become pro athletes. This is exactly the kind of thing they should be taught—how to act in public. No diffrent than teaching them manners at a restaurant and which fork to use. This is a new age, and public media items like twitter and facebook are the new social means.
We're Texas, We're not OK.
This is a common practice among alot of companies and not just UT. Many people have been fired over things they say on fb. They even teach human resources how to find ways around your privacy settings to review your fb page before hiring you. Its a much more common practice than many would like to think.
"This is a chance to shine some light on the city, They say it’s too cold. I’m going to bring some warmth to it." Marcell Dareus
by matthew62 on Jan 24, 2012 3:17 PM CST via mobile reply actions
That's reality
If you don’t think every major corporation checks your social pages then I guess you never figured out why you did not get those jobs. It is the norm. ;-)
I have no doubt that the UT placement office is telling every single kid (non-athletes) to clean off those party photos from Facebook before you even think of sending out a resume’.
I can’t belive some of my school teacher friends out there that post pictures with drinks in their hands. Not eveything needs to be shared.
We're Texas, We're not OK.
You are correct, Sir.
When I would receive applications/resumes I always did a quick Facebook check to see what kind of person was behind the paper. This was in addition to background check, reference check, verification etc. There were quite a few that didn’t pass the Facebook check due to graphic photos, inappropriate language etc. I do have a problem with private emails being “not private” for the students. They have to have a way to talk to girlfriends, moms, siblings etc that isn’t up for scrutiny. In the corporate world though if you use a company computer on company time then anything you say is subject to company oversight. Big Brother IS watching.
If a man is alone in the woods and he speaks, if no one hears him,,is he still wrong?
@matthew62
If people are dumb enough to make their facebook profiles open to the public, and they get caught posting stupid things, then I agree they shouldn’t be hired. If a corporation ILLEGALLY HACKS into someone’s PRIVATE facebook account to snoop, then the corporation and those behind the hacking should face legal consequences. Not sure how you could even argue anything else.
They do not hack into anything and the way they do it is not illegal and fb allows it to happen. Theirs a way to slip past your privacy settings even if its friends only. Do not be fooled by the term university either colleges are first and foremost a buissness. Its all about the green baby.
"This is a chance to shine some light on the city, They say it’s too cold. I’m going to bring some warmth to it." Marcell Dareus
by matthew62 on Jan 25, 2012 6:00 PM CST via mobile up reply actions
I have no problem
With monitoring public social sites of players. Private information such as email (mentioned above) should and will be private.
by Longhorn11 on Jan 24, 2012 3:35 PM CST via mobile reply actions
Longhorn11 +1
could not agree more with the post above by Longhorn11. No problem with the Tweeter, FaceBook, etc monitoring. Have a HUGE problem with anyone checking emails or the like.
I think it's funny whenever the social networking and privacy arguments come up.
If you REALLY care about your privacy, don’t put anything you wouldn’t want to be made public on the Internet. Even if it’s the most secure service ever, there’s always a chance your information can be stolen.
People should be more concerned with what Facebook, Google, Twitter, etc do with their personal information more than what their school or employer does.
My source close to the program can beat up your source close to the program!
Don't forget, Texas already lost a player due to a Facebook post.
Lets not forget the Obama incident and what is probably the main reason for wanting to monitor social networks.
Distinction to be made here.
VarsityMonitor just monitors information that players make public and report to athletic departments in case something embarrassing shows up. I’m not clear on why this service is necessary as public information is just that — public. We didn’t need VarsityMonitor to get Buck Burnette kicked off the team.
An NCAA D1 program asking for password information from a player is a clear violation of privacy and is not acceptable. There is no evidence that Texas is doing this, and judging by some of the twitter posts I see from Texas recruits, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that Texas is not.
Oh. Aggies, I apologize; I forgot you were there. You may go now.
by pleaseplaykindle on Jan 25, 2012 3:59 PM CST reply actions
This is up to the university, VarsityMonitor does do more invasive things
Its good to here that Texas just monitors public info, but lets be clear that VarsityMonitor as a company offers far more invasive services if the university so chooses to use them. For example Villanova sent out a memo to its players that they were required to friend VarsityMonitor in order for VarsityMonitor to keep track of things Villanova’s athletes say to their close friends (not just public things). This is why I was curious as to Texas’s policy, and never said anything specific to Texas that wasn’t asked in the form of a question. Based on your post, Texas appears to be different than Villanova. This leads me to believe that its pretty much all up to the University in terms of how far they go, and VarsityMonitor is nothing but another company profiting off of college athletes.
Your definition
of public is slightly screwy. The access granted by being a friend is purely public. The only way to gain access to all of the player’s private would be through the player’s password, not friending. All requiring the friend access does is prevent the full privacy block some people use.
If you're able to set privacy settings on the site
they shouldn’t be allowed to require you to fork over your passwords. People should be allowed some semblance of privacy. The players should be required to add a friend who will not be held behind all the privacy walls people can put up though. This is a good compromise that allows the university to check what they do publicly, without being so intrusive that it pushes barriers.
TEXAS FIGHT
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
