If you are convinced the folks in IT enjoy reading your e-mail, they will soon have even more to keep them entertained. Your company may be getting new software to capture every screen you ever pulled up — and it’s perfectly legal. Thanks to executives who brought down companies like Enron and WorldCom, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 was created requiring every publicly traded company to maintain electronic records of all information passing through a company system.
British computer company Chronicle Solutions has created software designed for businesses that will capture every e-mail (including your personal Yahoo account), all instant messages, Web pages viewed, and voice-over IP phone calls. It’s a sort of TiVo, or digital video recorder, for the business world.
Any information obtained through your company’s modem is downloaded and saved, able to be pulled up by request for years to come. Companies are required to store it on tape or another server for future access.
So beware of system breaches. If the backup tape is misplaced, you may find your presumed private conversation with your Friday night poker buddy a top-rated hit on the Internet.
Posted by Angie Holladay
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28 Comments
This is evil. I would never pull this crap on my employees, but I trust my workers.
V.L.R.B!!
Disturbing, yes, but anything but new. Programs to do this kind of thing have been around a very long time.
I never check my email at work, nor do I post or read anything on a blog from work either.
If you work for a reasonable employer and do your job well, why should you worry?For most office workers who have internet access, they are employed at will, i.e, they can be terminated at any time without cause. Employers do look the other way for favorable employees, and this will be just one more tool to weed out unfavorable employees without any court battles.Employees do not have ‘rights’ in this area.
Ok here is one of the urban legends about the Government and the net, a part of the settlement with the government. Micro-soft has put backdoors and data recording ability in ever operating system in any computer sold since the settlement. So that the feds can come in to any computer they want at anytime they want. Basically if your computer is XP Op and you have internet access hooked up to it, right now as I type this. The FBI, IRS, CIA, NSA, even the office of land management could be going through my computer.If I leave the DSL on and the computer on, then to and never know it is happening.
(This is a joke) The company I work for thought of putting surveillance cameras above the women’s changing rooms to stop the theft of women’s apparel. But gave up on the idea when no one was willing to watch the tape of a three hundred pound woman trying on a tong! BTW, yes that is one of the most stolen items everyday from retailers…Lady’s under garments. One day while cleaning out the changing room, I found evidence that five different sized bras had been stolen. From a young teen to a 44 DD, so either five females were in need of a new bra or the thief need something to fit out the largest of the five.Oh the stories I could tell! LoL I may still some day…
If you don’t want employees using the internet, why provide it for them? This has to be one of the dumbest employer-employee conflicts yet.
Personal story: I once wrote a very lengthy sexually explicit email detailing every possible act and I hit send. The email never arrived to the recipient. It never arrived!!!! Where did it go? I sweat it out for 2 weeks. Important – it was a reply to a message. I double checked.To this day I have no idea where it is. It cured me of talking dirty on email.
jj – I’m surprised you haven’t blamed this in Clinton!
If ya’ need my home info just ask.I’ll be your huckleberry.
jj – since I don’t hide in a hole like you do why don’t you come out and post your name, address, phone, etc. Or are you the coward we all know you are?
Duh! It’s their computers, it belongs to the company. Before computers existed if you were dumb enough to write something down on a piece of paper that was inappropriate or derogatory to the company you worked for, then you deserve to be taken to the woodshed.
Now take that same piece of paper and put it in a file cabinet; what level of dumbness is that?
A computer is for data storage and manipulation just like paper used to be. It’s the company’s data and not your personal data maybe?
As far as spying on personal email that was never used at the workplace, yes that should be illegal and am surprised it is not. My suggestion if your boss wants an email address, make an hotmail or yahoo mail address and give that to him. Keep your personal email private and share it with no one except family and trusted companies.
JM is absolutely right. The office computer is company property. Many of us need internet access on a regular basis and some “extra-curricular” use is expected. I would add “put that piece of paper in the inter-office mail” …
To: jj@cox.netSubject: troll
Your message cannot be delivered to the following recipients:
Recipient address: jj@cox.netReason: Remote SMTP server has rejected addressDiagnostic code: smtp;550 recipient rejectedRemote system: dns;mx1.west.cox.net (fed1rmimpi02.cox.net IMP ESMTP server ready)
Apparently jj doesn’t exist.
I personally would hate to have to do modern engineering without internet access.
So true. I just hope that they look deeper when they find certain web sites as having been visited. I have found that legitimate searches can go horribly wrong. Try typing in “biodegradation” and see what you get. (For my purposes it is the biological transformation of pollutants into other chemicals. But, with that root word … )
In defense of employees, I believe that management should establish ground rules for internet use.If they know the rules then they can be held accounatble.
Good point tracy. For example, during breaks and lunch surf the net? When working Saturdays having ESPN minimized to check scores?
In many ways this is just an extension of what we have done over the years – using the copy machine for example. Common sense goes a LONG way.
The problem with common sense, Ben, is that it is a rare comodity today amongst the management class.
Good point steven but I think there are some coming through who DO have common sense. I saw this as I studied for my MBA; we were all ‘front-line workers’ striving to improve ourselves. So, instead of going into management without ‘floor’ experience we are training experienced workers to do that.
It does indeed depend upon the employer. There’s a bit of a difference between looking up something that’s tangentially work-related–or even something innocuously personal–and, say, porn-surfing (yes, there ARE people stupid enough to do that on their work computers!).
Some employers have such concerns about proprietary information (and such little trust of the their own employees, despite monitoring), that even, say, checking one’s email during the lunch hour is verboten.
None of which has too much to do with Angie’s point, mainly whether the compiled information ends up in the wrong hands. It’s the degree of information retention, and the possible breach of security, that’s being raised.
However, unless you’re using your credit card at work (usually a dumb idea), most likely your poker-buddy conversation will be of zero interest to anyone. But there IS a privacy issue that should not be lightly dismissed, even if you’re only doing work-related activities.
However, I’m more concerned about security breaches involving personal data of millions, the opposite problem if you will. The next time I hear about 26 millions names on some idiot’s laptop, I’m going to scream. That’s just inexcusable.
“However, unless you’re using your credit card at work”
Actually, I always figured at work was the safest place to use my credit card since the computers here are secure.
Well, Ben, it depends on how secure your intranet and workstation actually are. But, thinking about it more, strong 128-bit encryption makes it fairly unlikely risk in the first place, doesn’t it? I take back the comment (it ain’t 1996 no more!).
I always assume that my employer knows my internet habits by now.And that everything I’ve ever written is stored somewhere.
We’ve found a better answer…I use my personal computer at work (Hey, I’m never home anyway).
If your company owns the computers, network, and is paying for the internet connection, it’s reasonable (as well as legal) for them to be aware of what is going on over that equipment. Further, if they are liable for information leaks of their data, or have trade secrets, or are even just worried about the legal issues with compliance, harassment, or e-discovery, they have a responsibility to monitor the content. Everyone knows the internal threat is bigger than the external threat (even if the internal threat is just stupidity and ignorance). Taking steps to mitigate this threat should be the responsible actions of any company.If you are worried that your company will have a zero tolerance policy on this subject, they will soon run out of employees who they don’t fire. Reasonable use is important, but it’s also a lot like Potter Stewart’s definition of pornography “I can’t define it, but I know it when I see it.”
Yes, Nate, I’m aware of all those concerns, but you know better than this:
“If you are worried that your company will have a zero tolerance policy on this subject, they will soon run out of employees who they don’t fire.”
The presumption that employees will somehow quit rather than tolerate unneccesary indignities is negated by the widespead use of mandatory drug testing (just one example!) in the U.S. While I can’t speak to the business climate in the U.K., I somehow doubt Brits would more inclined to walk without another job secured.
Add a paycheck–a very major concern for many, rather than some type of optional bonus–and simply refusing a position over a privacy issue, again, becomes an unlikely option.
And if the technology becomes ubiqitous, where do they escape TO? Your simplistic argument doesn’t seem to account for that.
I, again, do not dispute concerns about liability and trade secrets etc., but dealing with employees as individuals is far more effective than electronic lockdowns. Morever, such concerns existed long before computers were a staple of the workplace.
I understand you hardly approach this from an unbiased perspective (as CTO of the company in question, how can you?), but at least I commend you for posting as yourself (if that’s really you!).
Rage,I fully respect the issues that you are referring to. I was not indicating that an employee should view leaving as their only recourse to a policy they object to.Instead, I was implying that employers have to give their employees an appropriate amount of leeway. We all know the statistics that employees spend a few hours a day goofing off, but also spend a few hours a day working from home. This is good for both sides, and I doubt too many companies will try to lose this tradeoff. If employers try to crack down by firing those who are doing any personal activity online, they will fire everyone from the CEO down to the mailroom newguy, including the HR person responsible for firing these people.Companies must find a balance that works for their niche. They also have a responsibility to be aware of the data on their network. They are liable for it after all.
(I am CTO of the company, and am always willing to get into philisophical discussions on privacy, as I also am a card-carrying member of the ACLU and an avid follower of the CATO Institute)
I found the word “candy” 90 times in the Wichitalk section of the newspaper.