The employee needs to be cognizant of the company policy w.r.t to confidential information and how the directory is classified.

Otherwise, it may not be worth the trouble, especially if the information within is misused.

- Adwait

However, the proper use of that information now is in your hands. Using the information to create problems for the person/people you’ve recorded data on is dangerous. If it can be proven you (a) gathered the information without explicit permission, and you (b) allowed the information to be used negatively, then you could be in some trouble.

But, be a good, descent person with it, and you’re probably OK. Maybe.

Any time I get contact info I stored that data for future reference.

If somebody leaves a company by their own choice they often send a goodbye email with their contact info. Probably many of us do save that. If I’m meeting somebody for lunch I ask for their cellphone number in case of last minute issues and save it. OK no biggie. Well if I get my manager’s delegation and need home phone numbers in case of work emergencies, I save them. Or sometimes if people are on vacation but are still on call they may offer their cell number.

OK now for the most questionable one. There have been many occasions during my long career when the department secretary will announce a co-worker will be out for days due to a death in the family. They provide contact info (address and home phone) for those wishing to send condolences. You guessed it, I save that info. However I do feel a little dirty doing such. On the other hand I’ve never used any of the info collected in that manner and never intend to use it inappropriately.

So is saving that data unethical since I would not be using it in the future per its original intent and was not offered first hand? Or I’m just being a savvy data collector?

In the heyday of dot-com 1.0, the late nineties, I worked at Genuity, a now-defunct company based in Boston. That was an incredible place, and I really got to get my sea-legs in terms of working with incredible people and teams, and do really cool stuff.

Back then, I was turned on to LinkedIn, then about the only social network out there (unless you count Classmates.com, bleh). The idea that my contacts could update their OWN information was cool to me, so I signed up.

In the years that followed my time there, the company went out of business thanks to rocky financial footing anyway + the bubble bursting + 9/11. Still to this day, I get connection requests from colleagues who worked there. Some I remember well. Others I admit not remembering that well. But I connect to them anyway. Its kinda my small way to reach back out to them. Maybe I can hardly do anything for them now, but if they want to connect, and I can help them meet someone who can boost their career, then by all means, I will do it.

I also know that many companies will post employee information on a corporate intranet, or in some other digital format. It may be a good idea while you’re at the company to do some work exporting/importing that data into your contact-manager of choice. Outlook perhaps? Or Jibber Jobber? It will be a great resource for you while on-the-job as you’ll have contact names, emails and extensions at your fingertips. But if those get synchronized to your PDA or phone somehow before you go, they might prove useful down the line.

Point of the story–maybe you can’t take the company roster with you, but there’s no reason you can’t develop an alternate way of getting and storing the contact information for key people in your organization, either by diligent effort (saving contact info as you go, or import-export-geekery) or by making sure you regularly groom your network of contacts and invite people to connect with YOU in a manner that will persist after you or both of you have left your current organization.