Coverage last week by InternetNews associate editor Kevin Corbin at Datamation on the FTC public workshops questions whether Personally Identifiable Information or PII, is being protected, respected and used properly in behavioral targeting by social media web sites and networks of advertisers. One approach for business which has been suggested is for businesses to have strong social media guidelines for employees that have access to the PII data and how to treat data gathered from members of FaceBook Fan pages and how employers treat employee use of Twitter accounts.

They make it painlessly simple to opt out of the listing:

Distinguishing between personal and business accounts is sometimes difficult and sometimes nearly impossible, depending on the individual, the type of business they work for, and whether they have multiple accounts.

Below is a WebProNews video addressing Social Media Policies and questioning just what is expected of businesses now (in an accompanying article) whether there is any more clarity available to business and advertisers.

Below is a very brief video from Mary Engle of the FTC outlining in the simplest of terms that bloggers must disclose a paid endorsement or sponsored posts. While it doesn’t detail anything but sponsored posts for bloggers. [Full guideline document here]

The social media policy guidelines are non-existent and still vague, as covered in the WPN video at top. More details will be coaxed from the FTC, but for now, businesses need to address the issue of employee social media policies without the clarity by using common sense and self-policing until guidelines and requirements are established.