Spying on users.

[Fat Tone]

Granted it's not a nice position to be in. You have to have faith that the police will make the right decision after their investigations. Mud sticks though.

A friend of mine acts as a consultant to the police on some very, very nasty cases. Some of the material he sees as a result is pretty grotesque. Other colleagues are researching areas that involve accessing potentially unacceptable material. Obviously its all subject to strict codes of ethics and conduct, and those of us who need to know about it are fully informed in case there is ever a question raised. I hope I never get asked to judge what is essential for the work and what is taking things too far.

[Elie]

To answer the question posted, I will say it is not illegal!

Our company has a security department to manage users and surfing patterns includig server hardening etc.

There has been alot of incidences where employees had to be let go for surfing the work type of pages (Porn comes to mind)

Anyway, it's not illegal to "spy" on users or your own company.

Regards,
Elie

[KvHagedorn]

That's right. Pretty soon, megacorps will own people and the conversion back to a feudal society will be complete.

[Marshmallowman]

Well I think most companies have legitimate rights to know what is on their computers. I always assume that at some point someone will need to have a lok through my work computer.

Maybe becasue I am on holiday and they need some important info/email or program that is on my work computer.
They also have to cover there own arses, the kiddie porn one is a good example.

If I absoltulty want to keep email private I use external webmail, and for private phone calls I would use my mobile.

Our company has policy that it can examine all email and check what we are browsing on the internet..it was put in place because of some nasty precedent where some small company was blown out of the water becasue of one dodgy employee's dodgy actions an email.

In the real world the boss has neither the time or inclination to check either our email or our computers and his emails and broweseing are more "not for work" than ours every will be

If you have private stuff keep it at home, it has no place on you employers computers systems.

And that guy who had to check the computer to find kiddie porn is example why I think it is a reasonable thing to do.

The dude should not feel bad about invading privacy, but feel good becasue he has hopefully stopped one more dodgy fecker from child abuse

But I do think mpost hidden cameras or any camera is defintely prvacy abuse.
But I can see how in some circumstances it can actually be protection...eg banks, 24 hours shops etc.

PS we have a smallish office so I could not have a private phone call in here anyway

[Brian Ellis]

There is only one place that hidden or visible cameras should not be allowed by law: toilets. Otherwise, I believe companies should be free to install them wherever they wish. Is there any difference to having your boss looking over your shoulder to see what you are doing? OTOH, I believe that the employment contract should explicitly state that it is company policy to reserve the right to have cameras in use at all times for security reasons and also that all external communications (incl. e-mail and Internet use) may be monitored at any time, at the company's discretion. I'm not saying that personal communications should be forbidden, but it should be remembered that excessive use of company resources is stealing time from them and is therefore subject to a mild ticking off, a warning, dismissal or police action according to the nature and degree of the crime (yes, it is all, strictly speaking, criminal).

As for kiddieporn, everything should be done to stamp it out. I know that several cases of teachers' school computers having it on their disks have come to light in Europe recently. Of course, they were dismissed instantly, whether they were arrested or not. Who would accept any form of person in any way responsible for kids to have any paedophilic tendencies, even if they never exercised them? In fact, I wonder how many teachers, youth leaders etc. go in for it because of their (maybe totally suppressed) tendencies? OTOH, I don't really know what should be done with known paedophiles who have never done any more than look at pictures or videos and maybe masturbate over them. Are they really a danger to society? If they don't actually come in contact with kids, can't they still take a useful place in society. Dunno.

[TransformX]

Originally posted by Brian Ellis
OTOH, I don't really know what should be done with known paedophiles who have never done any more than look at pictures or videos and maybe masturbate over them. Are they really a danger to society? If they don't actually come in contact with kids, can't they still take a useful place in society. Dunno.

They should be treated like people who buy stolen goods or drugs.
When there's demand, there has to be supply. In this case, the supply is illegal.

[Brian Ellis]

Originally posted by TransformX
They should be treated like people who buy stolen goods or drugs.
When there's demand, there has to be supply. In this case, the supply is illegal.

That troll certainly does not answer my question. By all means, the supply should be cut, as far as is humanly possible, but what can be done with the harmless individuals who have indulged in the past and have been caught because they downloaded a pic from the 'Net a year ago? Send them to clink where they will be exposed to worse sexual perversions? Give them treatment? How? Castrate them? Simply let them go, to lead an exemplary life? I have no answer, short of making masturbation a capital offence .

[TransformX]

I don't think people are accused because they've seen / downloaded a single picture.
We're talking here about people with a collection of such pictures.
We can start arguing about how much material is a collection, but you get my drift. Paedophilia should be treated like Drugs (I don't mean rehab etc. I mean arrests or whatever), quantity makes a difference.

[ZokesPro]

I know most IT companies over here have their own rules. When I used to take tech support calls for Dell , the company I worked for would practically fire you on the spot if there was ANY porn related activities going on. I only know one guy who saved his job cause the site he was on had a porn banner, but also cause his manager needed him to stay.

But they couldn't accuse anyone for all the porn servers in the lounge area, hehe.

[KvHagedorn]

Originally posted by Brian Ellis
That troll..

So anyone who dares to argue with you is a troll?

Personally, I take offense at being taped and monitored by some big-brother type entity. I would not do that to my employees if I were in the position to. Either you trust someone and hire them or you don't. It's a matter of honor and treating people with respect. Their presence gives you as a CEO the ability to live a nice and comfortable life, so they deserve to be treated as human beings.

[The PIT]

Like someone else said it should be clearly stated in your contract whats been monitored.
However you also need a happy work place and bosses acting like secret service agents won't really help this.
Another argument is do you have the right too use your companys network for your own personal use. The company pays for it you don't.
At work we're supposed to dail a special number for personnal calls. I do if I'm ringing up companies to chase up orders but if I ringing for a doctors appointment or Dental appointment I don't.

[Brian Ellis]

Originally posted by KvHagedorn
So anyone who dares to argue with you is a troll?

Not at all. In this case, I raised a point and Tx went off at a complete tangent to avoid answering the point I raised. If that's not trolling, what is?

In principle, I agree with the rest of your message, but, as an ex-CEO, the employment contract should include the right for the employer to intervene because not all employees look at things in the same light and a few do abuse your trust. In all my 25 years as CEO of a small corp., I was lucky in that only one person did abuse the company: a sales rep who put in, over 6 months, reports on visits that he never made. When I found out, I sacked him on the spot, illico prestissimo. Then he had the nerve to try and sue us for unlawful dismissal

[Dilitante1]

Most companies have an "Acceptable Use" policy. Under that, the computers being company property are subject to inspection at any time. So do what you are asked as it is allowed under the policy in place.