Porsche employees banned from social networking

STUTTGART - Luxury car manufacturer Porsche has banned employees from using internet sites such as Facebook, Google Mail or Ebay during office hours, for fear of industrial spying, German media reported Saturday.

Corporate security chief Rainer Benne told business weekly Wirtschaftswoche that the company feared information could be leaked via social networking site Facebook in particular.

The magazine reported that foreign intelligence agencies systematically used Facebook to contact company insiders and win their trust in order to obtain information.

Roughly a quarter of Porsche’s 13,000 global employees use Facebook and other social networking sites, Wirtschaftswoche reported.