Alabama IT Whistleblower Fired For Spyware

Posted by timothy on Saturday July 31, 2004 @02:04PM from the insult-injury-and-all-that-jazz dept.

chalker writes "Vernon Blake, an IT sysadmin for the Alabama Department Of Transportation, wanted to get evidence that his boss spent the majority of his time playing solitaire on his computer. Since emails to higher up supervisors were ignored, he installed Win-Spy, which grabbed screenshots several times per day over a period of 7 months. 70% of the resulting screenshots showed an active game of solitaire, and another 20% showed his boss checking the stock market. When he reported this to superiors, he was fired, even though he had 21 years of service in the position. His boss got a reprimand to 'stop playing games'. He is appealing his termination in court since he claims it was part of his job description to 'confirm and document' computer misuse for ALDOT. His complete story is here."

4 of 751 comments (clear)

Spaces in the screen caps urls by jxs2151 · 2004-07-31 14:16 · Score: 0, Troll

Grrrr....
Re:maybe he was fired... by TykeClone · 2004-07-31 14:51 · Score: 1, Troll

Well, it is Alabama, after all.

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A fine is a tax you pay for doing wrong and a tax is a fine you pay for doing all right.
Re:Other side of the story? by gangien · 2004-07-31 16:02 · Score: 0, Troll

this is /., don't expect unbiased articles that represent both sides.
Re:In Soviet Russia.... by Anonymous+Writer · 2004-07-31 17:24 · Score: 0, Troll

You don't play games with your computer... your computer playes games with you?