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Federal Judges Take a Stance Against Workplace Monitoring
parvati writes: "The NYTimes is reporting that federal judges on the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (the largest of the 12 regional circuit courts) disabled software on their office computers that monitored downloading of music, streaming video, and pornography--software that had been installed by the Washington-based Administrative Office of the Courts after a survey showed that 3-7% of the judicial computer traffic included streaming video and the like. The judges say that they are concerned about "the propriety and even the legality of monitoring Internet usage." The AOC is not pleased."
My workplace uses blocking software. In conjunction with an investigation, a supervisor request or normal network maintenance, we occassionally monitor Internet (primarily WWW) usage. Each time we can't a half dozen folks who are then reprimanded or fired.
Our CEO's feeling is that we should not have to tell our employees that using a company provided PC and Internet bandwidth during the workday to surf porn it not OK. With the last few rounds of discipline however, we have put out a notice to all employees, the boss put out a letter to supervisors requiring them to council their staff and we initiated a user statement of agreement that is signed prior to being issued an account.
All that is great CYA. It is disappointing to see folks who should be setting the example protect the immature habits of a few. It is crap like this that is that is causing American jobs to go elsewhere. I am not for worker abuse, but like one of my bosses used to tell me "When you name is on the bottom of your paycheck, you will get a vote in workplace policy".
Did you hear the story about the two judges arrested for drunk driving on the same night? They get to talking, and figure out that they could be the judge at each other's trial, and get off a lot easier.
So, on the day of the trial, the first judge takes the bench, the second says he is representing himself, etc., etc.. To speed things up, the defendant pleads guilty, the judge asks, are you sorry for what you did, etc., etc., the defendant shows "due remorse", and the judge decides to let him off with time served.
The two then switch places, even swapping the same black robe there in the court room, each wearing their golfing outfits underneath, and switch places.
The current defendant pleads guilty, and shows "due remorse". The judge looks over the desk, and says, "if memory serves, this is the second DUI in a row that has come before the court. In the past, the court has been lenient on this particular offense, but it looks like we have to send a message to the community. $5000 fine and time served!"
I agree, this probably won't turn into a real court case. All this talk about illegal wiretaps and other nonsense sounds scarier than a nice, simple privacy amendment to the constitution. I wouldn't like my IT department getting a court order to "wiretap" my connection because they think I may be "stealing" excessive bandwidth from the company. Is it a worse crime if you are "stealing" from a government institution?
The solution is clear - either a privacy ammendment, which clearly states the right to privacy and lets future legislation and court cases decide the boundaries (not likely in the near future), or just go to a better company, one that's not as draconian. And you wonder why there is a shortage of tech workers for government jobs?
Wait a second here. I read this to mean that it was ruled a violation of privacy to visit someone's website? This seems a bit far in the other direction. Does anyone have any more information? I am firmly against workplace monitoring, but at the same time, I can't imagine how some one could post a web page and not expect visitors.
-db
How do you tella judge what they can and can't look at in the course of their duties? If they're working on a case that involves online porn they may need to visit the site!
The revolution will NOT be televised.
Note that in the article, Judge Kozinski is reported to state in a memorandum that he believes monitoring for content is a violation of anti-wiretap statute. This is independent of whether the judges themselves or the judiciary employees want to avoid monitoring for idealistic and legalistic reasons or simply as an end-run around being caught downloading MP3s, AVIs, inappropriate content for the workplace, or simply stealing the bandwidth provided to them as a matter of course for their use in their employment. Don't forget that the judges are employed by us (the taxpayers) via the government to administer and adjudicate the laws that are created by the legislative and executive branches that we choose to elect.
I didn't elect them to use workplace time and equipment for personal use. Now I agree with Kozinski that if this policy was not well-articulated, then it is wrong for monitoring to be allowed to occur. But I also feel that it is not appropriate to suck bandwidth or waste time on the company dime. Especially when that company dime came from my pocket via taxes.
I also feel that if the company or gov't office allows people to use telephones to make personal calls, they ought to allow some leeway in using internet bandwidth for personal use.
But since it would be inappropriate to use the office telephone system to call Mabel in Australia every day from the AOC office in the U.S.A., it would be just as inappropriate to waste huge amounts of bandwidth for MP3's (unless you are Judge Marilyn Patel, working on the Napster case), porn (unless you are working on a porn-related case), or even voice-over-IP phone calls (unless you are going to work on that case that ATT, MCI, et al, all WANT to file!).
Judge not lest ye be judged... or something like that.
I've hit Karma 50 and gotten a Score:5, Troll... I win!
Any appeals in Dmitry Sklyarov's case will go to the 9th Circuit, which is just one rung below the Supreme Court (and in fact, is the final say in most cases; only about 2% of cases appealed from Circuit Courts of Appeal are ever accepted for review by the Supreme Court.) It's cool that we have judges so high up the ladder who have a sense of individual liberties and enough tech know-how to work around The System to achieve it.
IANAL
I work for a consulting firm that does a great deal of work for the government. If I'm surfing porn or whatever during their time, then that's not a legitimate use.
Mass downloading on the other hand is something else entirely. As I type, I have slackware 8.0 downloading and I regularly listen to streaming radio feeds while I'm doing my work. Those are the uses that I think are the most important. IMHO, It's no different from having the radio on or listening to a cd.
Note that in the article, Judge Kozinski is reported to state in a memorandum that he believes monitoring for content is a violation of anti-wiretap statute. This is independent of whether the judges themselves or the judiciary employees want to avoid monitoring for idealistic and legalistic reasons or simply as an end-run around being caught downloading MP3s, AVIs, inappropriate content for the workplace, or simply stealing the bandwidth provided to them as a matter of course for their use in their employment. Don't forget that the judges are employed by us (the taxpayers) via the government to administer and adjudicate the laws that are created by the legislative and executive branches that we choose to elect.
I didn't elect them to use workplace time and equipment for personal use. Now I agree with Kozinski that if this policy was not well-articulated, then it is wrong for monitoring to be allowed to occur. But I also feel that it is not appropriate to suck bandwidth or waste time on the company dime. Especially when that company dime came from my pocket via taxes.
I also feel that if the company or gov't office allows people to use telephones to make personal calls, they ought to allow some leeway in using internet bandwidth for personal use.
But since it would be inappropriate to use the office telephone system to call Mabel in Australia every day from the AOC office in the U.S.A., it would be just as inappropriate to waste huge amounts of bandwidth for MP3's (unless you are Judge Marilyn Patel, working on the Napster case), porn (unless you are working on a porn-related case), or even voice-over-IP phone calls (unless you are going to work on that case that ATT, MCI, et al, all WANT to file!).