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LinkedIn has recently opened up shop on their new feature company groups. The groups are not managed by the companies themselves but are self-run by employees that have identified themselves as employees of the organization. The problem is that I could list myself as an employee of Google on LinkedIn and there is little anyone could do about it.

Jennifer Leggio of ZDNet has an excellent commentary outlining the risks involved in using these groups.

Potential privacy issues through social media are currently taking the form of a beast that many companies are fighting hard to combat. With these seemingly private groups, employees with less understanding of how third-party communities work may share potentially proprietary information about customers, partners, product roadmaps or even financials.

While employees should never share unapproved company information via an external social networking site, LinkedIn’s lack of management tools for an assigned, verified company representative is also disconcerting — especially since these groups seem to be generated largely in part by honor system.