Hotmail: Not Safe For Work?

silentknight writes "According to MSNBC, web-based e-mail providers such as Yahoo and Hotmail may not be a haven for your private e-mail anymore. At least not while you're at work. SpectorSoft is introducing eBlaster, which aims to "secretly forward all e-mail coming and going through such Web-based accounts to a spy's e-mail". Corporations will most likely argue that, because of sites like Internal Memos, companies need to keep a tighter grip on the information that flows in and out of their companies. But attempting to spying on private e-mail?? In the words of Homer J. Simpson: "Butt out, Buttinsky"."

Comments

Frosty!

[Salad Shooter]

Lick my buttocks.

Re:Frosty!

[Anonymous Coward]

The summer came and B, in contrast to any hope, remained at St Petersburg. His trip in the south had been canceled but still his case wouldn't come to an end. This case -a trial over a financial dispute- started taking a very bad turn. Before three months it still seemed so simple, almost incontestable, suddenly however everything changed. "I have the impression that lately everything started becoming worse!" This phrase, B, used to say again and again frequently and with malevolence to himself. He had a lawyer worthy, renowed and dearly payed because he didn't spare the expenses. Nevertheless, due to impatience and disbelief, he took the habit of hunting the case and on his own: he would read and write various documents which his lawyer dismissed all, he would run to the competent institions, gather various information and of course upset everything; at least his lawyer grumbled and every now and then advised him to go to the country. But he, neither to the country decided to go. The dust, the unbearable heat, the white nights of St Petersburg which so much irritate the nerves -this is what he enjoyed in the capital. His house was somehwere there near the Grand Theater and it wasn't long that he had it taken, but and in that he was mistaken: "Everything goes wrong with me!" he said. His hypochondria was increasing day by day. Afterall from a while ago he had the predisposition to become hypochondriac.

He was a man who lived a wide and pleasant life. He wasn't young anymore. He must had been 38 or the most 39 and all this "old age" -as he said- came to him "completely unexpected". Nontheless, he felt it himself that he got old probably, not so much from the years, as from the way of life he passed and that althought his inabilities started already, their effect was more internal than external. His appearance showed still that he was fine. He was a fellow tall and courageous, with dense bright-blond hair, and not even one fur white wasn't seen in his head and his long flame-blond beard, that reached almost as the half of his chest. From the first impression he seemed a bit out of shape and like decayed but if one attentively looked at him he would preceive immediately that he had in front him a gentleman excellently preserved, who had received at sometime the most attended breeding. The manners of B and even now were free, brave and elegant despite the fact that with the years he had become crabbed and slow-moving. Even now he was full with that unshaken, the most social, full of impertinence self-confidence, whos extent maybe he didn't even suspect himself, althought he was a man not only smart, but sometimes and reasonable, almost educated and with indisputable gifts. The color of his face, which was merry and ruddy, stood out in the old years for it's female affection and drew the attention of women; but even and now many, when they saw him, said : "What a strong man, as if he was kneaded from blood and milk!" and yet, this strong man had been bout of severe hypochondria. His eyes, which were big and blue, ten years ago also had an expression unrivalled; so bright, so cheerful and carefree these eyes were, that unintentionally excited whoever came in contact with B. Now, at his forty years, almost faded the lucidity and kindness in those eyes, which started already being surrounded by light wrinkles; on the contrary, it showed up on them a certain cynicism of a tired and not entirely moral man; the cunning and even more often the irony and some new expression, which didn't exist in them before; and expression of melancholy and pain -one certain distracted melancholy, a little unjustified but yet possible. That melancholy occured mostly when he was alone. And strage, just two years ago this noisy, so cheerful and enjoyable man, who narrated so pungently so many funny stories, he not loving anything else now but living in absolute lonelyness. He turned aside on purpose from a heap of his acquqintances, whom could still even now socially contact, despite the total disaster of his financials. Of course, to all this added and his vanity : with his suspiciousness and his pride he couldn't put up with his old acquaintances. However and his vanity started slowly changing into isolation. Not that it grew less, on the contrary as a matter of fact. But he started taking a special form of vanity, which he didn't have before. Now he started getting hurt at times by completely different causes than the usual; he was teased by causes completely unexpected and which before didn't imagine at all, by causes "much more superior" than until today -"If anyone can express it like that, if indeed there are causes superior and inferior..." that thought he made it himself.

Ooh, goody...

[gleffler]

Yet another example of how we owe our lives and our souls (and our personal e-mails) to The Man(tm) while working on his clock. I agree that you're at work to work, but I feel that this is intruding just a bit too much for my comfort.

/gleffler

Just Use Linux

[Anonymous Coward]

It doesn't have a functional web browser, so you can't even use web based email to begin with. Security through lack of functionality.

l33t j03

Reflections of a Transgendered Cow

[Anonymous Coward]

Big Tex was the prize bull on Mr. Tucker's ranch, having won the
blue ribbon at many a state fairground. He was a incredibly large hunk
of rippling muscle that would have sent even the most fearless rodeo
cowboys running in fear. Mr. Tucker made sure that Big Tex sired many
calves on his ranch, and kept hoping for more prize cattle. But none
matched Big Tex's power, appearance, or assertive nature. Yes, he was
the king of the ranch.
Unknown to Mr. Tucker, though, Big Tex also possessed a very keen
mind. Big Tex knew that he was something special...the stud of the
cattle...and used his reputation to have his way with any cow he came
across, often brutally forcing his way upon the female beasts.
One day, while maneuvering his massive, dark brown bovine body
across a field at the ranch, Big Tex noticed an especially alluring cow
named Sue Bell chewing her cud seductively beside a tree.
"I've never conquered Sue Bell," Big Tex thought to himself, as
his pace quickened in the direction of the tree.
Sue Bell, raising her large eyes toward the oncoming and excited
bull, immediately turned and began to march away.
"She can't escape me that easily," Big Tex thought, as he closed
the distance in a steady gallop, her reddish coloring making him all the
more aggressive.
Big Tex finally reached Sue Bell and rared up on his hind legs onto
her back, prepared to make the frightened cow his latest in a long line
of conquests.

Suddenly... all went black for an instant, and Big Tex found
himself lying down in a pile of hay in a barn. Looking around, he did
not recognize his surroundings.
"What happened? This place doesn't look familiar," he thought as he
gazed around.
Climbing to his feet, Big Tex realized that his body felt wrong.
He was shorter than normal, and he could see that his body was now milky
white with at least one black spot on one of his legs.
His legs! His legs were now much less muscular, and he felt
generally weaker all over.
He was shocked and involuntarily let out a loud "Moo".
"What's wrong with my voice! It's never sounded so high pitched
and delicate."
All of a sudden Big Tex felt an unfamiliar movement just below his
belly.
"Udders!!!I have udders!!!" his mind screamed in revulsion.
Spying an old mirror laying against a wall of the barn, Big Tex
trotted over, noticing a strange sway in his rear parts as he walked.
He also noticed that something seemed to be missing from between
his hind legs.
"It can't be missing!" he thought in horror. "What I think has
happened, couldn't have happened!"
Big Tex reached the mirror and almost regurgitated some cud when he
saw the image reflected back at him. A cow! A VERY female cow was
staring back at him.
She/he had long lashes highlighting big delicate eyes. He could
see the large mammary sack hanging underneath him with the very obvious
udders poking downward. And, of course, the very heart and soul of the
prized bull was missing, replaced by the very female part of the cow
anatomy that he coveted so much. But he didn't covet it in this way!
"I can't be a cow," he thought. "I'm a bull! I've got to change
back somehow."
Just then a large man walked into the barn carrying a bucket. He
was obviously a farmhand. He grabbed a stool from the corner and pulled
it up next to Big Tex in his sleak new cow body.
"Oh no!" Big Tex thought. "I know what he has in mind, and I can't
go through with it."
The bull/cow started to lunge away, which angered the man, who
proceeded to steer Big Tex into a cramped stall.
"In my other male body I could have gotten away from him, but not
in this weak carcass," Big Tex thought.
The man placed the bucket under Big Tex.
"Here it comes," the new cow tensed.
The man grabbed the udders and began pulling on them. Big Tex was
surprised by the sensation as his udders stiffened under the caress of
the man's hand.
"Hey, this feels kind of good," Big Tex thought. The sound of the
warm milk hitting the metal bucket made the experience even more
pleasant for Big Tex.
"Maybe I could live like this, for awhile at least."

Six months later, Big Tex found that he did enjoy being "one of the
cows" as they huddled together in the fields munching grass. He also
found that he liked the attention he received from the bulls, and
realized that cows enjoy mating much more than bulls, something he would
have never dreamed.
Finally, Big Tex found himself to be the proud mother of a strong
young calf, possibly the future stud of the ranch.
He could not imagine ever going back to being a bull.
Life was udderly delightful!

Re:Reflections of a Transgendered Cow

[Anonymous Coward]

I am taking a nice big shit whilst reading this. I'm also trying really hard not to eat my shit. Ooo. oh boy. How sad. Would you care to lick my creamy bartorks? My testicle piercing is starting to itch. I truly hope I won't accidentally tear them off. Its times like this when I truly feel like grabbing my dick fuzz in one hand, and ripping it all out at one go. Doesn't that make you wheeze? Ooo! oh no. There goes the dinner plate. What dinner plate you say? Oh. I don't think you're ready for that. Care to taste my salty and wrinkled shit-encrusted ballsack? Why yes, I do enjoy crapping my pants and squishing it by sitting down and gyrating my sexy hips.

Ooo.
oh no.

Hotmail makes my work safer !

[Adolf Hitroll]

I give my hotmail address around for all my spam to be directed there and I use my real mailbox for productive purposes :-)

Re:To be honest

[Yet Another Smith]

This is patently untrue. For example, in the article, they point out that personal mail coming to you through the company's mail room is not subject to search or opening. This would be a direct violation of federal law in the US. Similarly, in many states it is illegal to monitor or record phone calls without the express permission of both parties in the call, regardless of who owns the telephone. So when you say 'However, to expect that what you do within the walls of your company is private is laughable,' not only is it not laughable, it is in many cases a matter of law. If they want to set up a camera to monitor wether you're working, that's their business, but they can't screen your mail. So it is hardly unreasonable to think that a certain modicum of privacy could be protected in web use.

My company also has as part of their acceptable IT use policy that the internet can be used for certain amounts of personal business that cannot be conducted outside of business hours. This includes personal banking, bill paying, and other such activities. If we assume that they then have the right to spy on anything we do, then they can spy on our personal finances, medical history, or whatever. By allowing us expressly in their IT policy to use the web for personal business, they've put themselves in a position where we have a demonstable expectation of privacy. Of course, this is not true in the case of every company, and even the US Mail is not private in cases of companies that deal with national security or other sensitive activities.

Re:To be honest

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, aren't you the little Kevin Spacey dick-licker! Settle down, you'll blow your synapse thinking this hard.