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Does Your Employer Ban Skype?

Posted by Cliff on from the loss-of-a-communication-tool dept.

neutralino asks: "This morning, we received an company-wide email stating that the Max Planck Society (a German government funded research organization) has outlawed the use of P2P software at all of its institutes (including ours). The statement specifically singled out the use of Skype for internet telephony. The reasons given for this were that 'the exchanged data cannot be controlled' (therefore it might be illegal) and that 'Max-Planck or research resources in general might be abused, if "only" for commercial purposes.' This caught us by surprise, since many of us use VoIP to communicate with friends and family and collaborators, in our respective home countries. Is it now standard practice for companies, government organizations, and universities to outlaw Skype? Should it be?"

6 of 154 comments (clear)

  1. Nope by voice_of_all_reason · · Score: 1, Funny

    My employer doesn't ban Skype. I can get to the homepage just fine.

    Not being allowed to execute any .exe or .zip files is kinda a drag, though...

  2. Re:Of course they do ... by Kesch · · Score: 4, Funny

    Not even stadiums full of lawyers...

    Did the temperature just drop in here, or is it just me?

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  3. Re:And make sure to keep it to work. by pixelpusher220 · · Score: 2, Funny

    it doesn't disappear.

    Just sort of like your sleezy cousin Vinny, it waits outside for you to get off work ;-)


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    People in cars cause accidents....accidents in cars cause people :-D
  4. Yes, primarily due to security by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Yes, Skype is blocked where I work. Ostensibly, this is primarily because it opens a hole in the firewall, thus making it a security threat.

    It might also have something to do with the fact that we're a phone company.

  5. Why is this modded Funny? by Valdrax · · Score: 2, Funny

    I work for a major US cell phone carrier, and we have the exact same problems. Pretty much all non-HTTP, FTP, or SSH traffic outside of the LAN is blocked. We don't have administrator rights to our laptops, and there is a huge bureaucratic lag on getting things installed that requires a lot of justification. Getting log-ins on machines we need access to do our jobs can take two weeks to get approval. Personally, I'm of the opinion after butting heads a few times that the job of our IT department is to prevent work from getting done.

    (Our excuse du jour is "SOX compliance." What's yours?)

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    If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
  6. Re:Of course they do ... by j-cloth · · Score: 2, Funny

    Good post. I agree with a lot of what you are saying, but please tell me you composed this from home.