????剛剛看完《國土安全》（Homeland）的大結(jié)局（別擔(dān)心，沒劇透），今早就在街上碰到了劇中達(dá)爾?阿達(dá)爾的扮演者F?莫里?亞伯拉罕（是的，我傻乎乎地脫口而出，“昨晚干得真漂亮”），我滿腦子都在想間諜什么的。我在想，要把一份情報(bào)工作干得出色多難啊，而要把一項(xiàng)低級(jí)的情報(bào)任務(wù)搞砸又是多么的容易。

????于是，我不禁想起了宜家（IKEA）法國公司正在上演的故事，它的高管正在因?yàn)樯嫦影抵斜O(jiān)視員工和顧客而接受調(diào)查。正如《紐約時(shí)報(bào)》（New York Times）所報(bào)道的那樣，這些高管據(jù)稱聘請了私人偵探來挖掘員工、憤怒的消費(fèi)者和其他人身上的污點(diǎn)。公司前首席執(zhí)行官讓-路易?巴約已被開除，而且調(diào)查還可能導(dǎo)致其他人遭到刑事指控。

????我很遺憾地表示，這是相當(dāng)愚蠢的事情。由于互聯(lián)網(wǎng)的存在，消費(fèi)者們早就已經(jīng)在心甘情愿地向宜家這樣的公司提供幾乎每一點(diǎn)私人信息。誰付0.99美元買了一張馴鹿圖案的桌布，誰花了14個(gè)小時(shí)才將一張Micke系列的桌子拼裝起來，宜家統(tǒng)統(tǒng)知道。它還知道誰在網(wǎng)上買了什么東西，誰突然間需要換一張更大的床，以及誰最近愛上了園藝。這家公司之所以知道這些，原因是因?yàn)轭櫩蛡儤酚谔峁┻@些信息來換取特別折扣和/或免費(fèi)瑞典肉圓。

????那么，宜家到底涉嫌干了些別的什么事情？除此之外，它還會(huì)打探一些人的個(gè)人生活，包括那些投訴服務(wù)的顧客以及請長病假的員工，希望能就此讓他們的主張站不住腳。它利用了人們的分享意愿，以此來對(duì)付人們。這樣就把顧客變成了敵人，而不是合作伙伴。這種做法也造成了顧客的反彈，影響波及遠(yuǎn)至法國之外，對(duì)這家380億美元的瑞典家具巨頭造成了沖擊。

????像很多遇到麻煩的成功組織一樣，宜家的罪過在某種程度上是它成功的副產(chǎn)品。經(jīng)濟(jì)實(shí)力并不意味著你可以利用業(yè)務(wù)便利，更不要說職務(wù)便利。當(dāng)今時(shí)代毫無安全感可言，必須記住一點(diǎn)，保障人們對(duì)隱私權(quán)的幻覺仍然至關(guān)重要，就算它只是一個(gè)幻覺。信任也是如此。（財(cái)富中文網(wǎng)）??

????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.