More Companies Monitoring Worker E-mail Use

iatrim writes "CNN has a chilling story on the increasing use of new, more stealthy computer usage monitors." I know I would never work at a job which monitored me like this, but a lot of people don't really have the choice.

Comments

Sometimes employers have no choice

[coyote-san]

The other thing to remember is that sometimes employers have no choice. They're in an industry which requires supervision of employee statements (e.g., a stock broker can't promise that a stock price will rise), or they're subject to some specific enforcement action or settlement (e.g., they have a history of allowing a racially or sexually hostile "work environment" and must ensure email is free of offensive terms).

*That* doesn't bother me because it's clear that there was two sides to the story and it was a conscious attempt to balance interests. On the other hand, the monitoring used to micromanage "productivity," or to intimidate employees from briefly using the 'net for legitimate personal business, etc., is worrisome.

Finally, the article totally missed the point that leaves HR employees running screaming in horror at this technology. What happens if this software picks up the fact that an employee has been visiting Alcoholic Anonymous websites and may be thinking of joining? What if it picks up the fact that the employee has an undisclosed, but ADA-protected, illness?

It's not just a good idea, it's the law.

[burris]

The 1988 Electronic Communications Privacy Act, which has aften been ignored in these days of the DMCA, says that it is only legal to snoop on employee's email if they do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy. That means the IT departments need to make sure everyone knows that their e-mail may be read, otherwise it's not legal to snoop.

Burris

Well...

[chaobell]

Sure, the idea that my boss might be reading my e-mail is disturbing. Fortunately, the place where I work (for now) has folks in mangleme^H^H^H^H^H^H management that trust the underlings and don't really give a shit what else they do on company time, as long as the work gets done sometime before 5. And they have no room to talk about employees sending personal e-mail over the company's connection anyway. ^_^

However...we are highly unlikely to have anyone doing anything particularly naughty over said connection. This is not the case everywhere.

Catching up on e-mail with distant relatives, taking care of insurance and such, quick cruises through eBay...hell, even the occasional (I said occasional, mind you ^_^) addition to the pr0n folder isn't that much cause for scrutiny. But if Odd Things begin happening, unexplained internal or external attacks on the system and such, I'd want to check up and make sure it's not because the disgruntled worker on the 38th floor is putting a "h3y d00ds c0m3 h4x0r th1s s3rv3r" APB out to the seedier side of the world. I wouldn't like it, I wouldn't enjoy it, but in some cases it just might be necessary. And I can only hope the majority of businesses feel the same way.