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Keystroke Logging Declared Illegal in Alberta
Meshach writes "The Globe and Mail has a story about how
keystroke logging has been declared illegal in Alberta Canada. The ruling applies to companies using logging as a means to track employees." From the article: " The employee, who was not named, worked as a computer technician for six months in 2004. Ms. Silver said it was a job where productivity was hard to measure. 'We thought that using an objective check through the computer would be the most fair and objective way to do that,' she said Wednesday."
You can't tap a phone you "technically own" either, not even in the US. If you want to record a phone conversation, you have to let both parties know. Nothing odd about that.
If you're going for a business lunch, then the company should pay for it. If not, then get the money from a cash machine. I don't see how logging onto a bank account at work gets you your money, unless your computer is connected to a note forger machine.
If you don't want non-work passwords to be logged, then don't enter non-work passwords on work computers. Key-logging is perfectly acceptable. In my company we put loggers on all the computers to see what the employees are up to. I don't see how this is any worse than watching them on a camera or going round in person watching them. Is standing behind someone whilst they work an invasion of privacy?
Nowhere in the article does it say that keystroke logging was "declared illegal". That's just the usual /. hyperbole. The case was about logging on one employee without telling him which raised privacy issues. That's why in the US, they always have announcements like "your call may be monitored" on hotlines. They make it clear not only to you, but also to their own employees that someone may be listening in. Also, most companies tell their employees that email and web surfing may be monitored.
Intron: the portion of DNA which expresses nothing useful.