For those of you who thrive on social media sites here is something to think about.
Why Marriott looks at everything you post on social media from your room.
For those of you who thrive on social media sites here is something to think about.
Why Marriott looks at everything you post on social media from your room.
Just to be clear, if you read the article, it says Marriott is watching publicly shared posts about Marriott. They're not watching everything you do, just public postings done at Marriott properties. So if you don't want them to listen in, don't make public posts.
A Marriott official is quoted as saying "we are only engaging with people who are publicly sharing." This is an important distinction that so far, no one on this thread has mentioned yet.
On the plus side, if you have a problem, go ahead and tweet or post on FB. Marriott may hear you and could reach out to resolve it right away. That's the real power of this technology.
I use Facebook, Instagram and Twitter ALL the time to reach out to Marriott, United, Chilis Bar and Grill... haha! Most of it has been very positive! Like thanking them for things, sharing photos. Marriott has even asked permission to use some of my images of their properties I have posted.
Twitter and iahflyr saved my butt when I had to fly to New York and ran into all those flight issues.
Marriott does indeed engage and I think it is awesome.
Edit:
Sorry bejacob this was to replay to the main post - not sure how to move it now that has been posted.
Perhaps the next time MRI's are in a Marriott property, we should tweet or FB about the IT issues. Let's see how responsive this group of social monitors really are in getting issues resolved.
I did tweet it, and tagged so I am sure they saw it, but it was posted they were working on this issue at least.
seatexan I have found Twitter to be very valuable in many ways for getting assistance during travel from an assortment of vendors, some of whom are more responsive on Tw than others.
For those who may not be as up on some of the technologies: if your Twitter or FB posts are 'private', and not tagged to Marriott, they are not trying to consume that information. This has nothing to do with what you are doing on the web on their wifi etc., unless indirectly as a conduit to post those public tweets/whatever. If you are using their wifi and not on a VPN, *anyone* could be looking at what you are doing, just as they could at an airport, Sbux, the library, or what have you.
But this article is not about that-- it is about what you are posting on social media, which, by its nature, is public anyway. This is much less nefarious than some might think/make it out to be.
If you made these same posts through your mobile, using your cellular network, they could see those too once they hit the platform-- so this is not an issue of 'spying' per se.
I can't imagine many folks would be ultra happy to know they are being monitored constantly whilst on property. But I can also see someone trying to take advantage of this and try to obtain maybe some free perks. At some point, Marriott will catch on that I have been married over 150 times (as an example haha).