Hot Topic (6/21): Is it legal to spy on employees computer usage?

[Cafe GroupAdmin]

 

Douglas Schweitzer
The Security Sector

My son read an article in the newspaper about the legality of a boss spying on workers' surfing habits while at work. I told him that computers and other office equipment are the property of the company and as such are subject to inspection. Of course, various states may have different laws regarding this, but, in general, your employer has the right to monitor what you type, what communications you send, and what type of data you may store on your (actually, the company's) computer hard disk. How about this - even when you log into your employer's network from your own home, your home machine becomes part of the "company" network and may be subject to oversight (snooping). I say with employees working longer hours, management needs to lighten up and let workers have some flexibility to conduct some personal business (doctor appointments, etc.) as some businesses are not open before or after work hours. Where I work, we allow personal use of computers during our paid lunch hour or paid breaks. While some of our workers have abused this policy, most of us appreciate and respect the more liberal acceptable use policy and do our personal stuff when allowed.

What are your thoughts? Do Employers have the right to know what your doing online? What about if you work from home?

[stormcris]

If you are on their computer they have the right to say no personal use or to say OK to personal use...if they say OK to personal use and want to snoop then they need to have the person sign an agreement stating they understood that any web use can be monitored by the company, without doing so it is much like wire tapping, since no party of the usage would be knowledgeable to the monitoring. Then the company must provide a way to be certain that the web use they are monitoring is indeed conducted by the person who they believed to be using the machine. The easiest way for this to be done is by having a sign in that is password protected and automatically logs a person off after a certain period of inactivity. This is for people who use computers at their employers place of business.

For home use the employer should have a log on site that automatically monitors if a computer logging into the network has a virus or malware, beyond that there is no reason for the company to pry as most computers in this situation are the private property of the employee.

There are companies who have gone as far as to do internet searches and hack emails to learn of employees personal business....this I think should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law ....if it is illegal for the common citizen it should be illegal for all. Further more any collection of personal log ins and passwords is deemed to be hacking as well and should be prosecuted.

[tericared]

Quoting stormcris:

If you are on their computer they have the right to say no personal use or to say OK to personal use...if they say OK to personal use and want to snoop then they need to have the person sign an agreement stating they understood that any web use can be monitored by the company, without doing so it is much like wire tapping, since no party of the usage would be knowledgeable to the monitoring. Then the company must provide a way to be certain that the web use they are monitoring is indeed conducted by the person who they believed to be using the machine. The easiest way for this to be done is by having a sign in that is password protected and automatically logs a person off after a certain period of inactivity. This is for people who use computers at their employers place of business.

For home use the employer should have a log on site that automatically monitors if a computer logging into the network has a virus or malware, beyond that there is no reason for the company to pry as most computers in this situation are the private property of the employee.

There are companies who have gone as far as to do internet searches and hack emails to learn of employees personal business....this I think should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law ....if it is illegal for the common citizen it should be illegal for all. Further more any collection of personal log ins and passwords is deemed to be hacking as well and should be prosecuted.

Looks like you covered just  about everything..

[anxiousschk]

To me, if you are using a computer that is the property of your company...you should expect them to know your every move on that computer.

If you even sign something that says "I know this computer is property of xyz" then you're done.  It's theirs and they are merely letting you use it.  You are using their property and you should not have any reasonable expectation of privacy.

DH's computer is allowed personal use....but we have no expectation of privacy on it.   It is THEIR  computer, not ours. 

I feel that any websites you visit are theirs to see. 

[EireLass]

I think the reasons are two-fold. One to keep people focused on their work, and one to help prevent all the crap that "leaks" in through the internet. If you work long hours and need to contact doctors, etc...wouldn't you call them?

Remember, when you're on the internet...it's available to the "outside world". Companies are at risk with the internet in their office. All their files/financials/etc are at risk...I see them as trying to minimize risk.

[norwegianwood]

If it is YOUR hardware and software and internet link, not to mention TIME that is being for by you? Oh hell ya. Especially with disclosures that such will be done. There is TOO much that can happen to expensive work product/hardware etc with viruses and the potential for the 'wrong' stuff to get sent to the 'wrong' people..it's just a bad idea to let employees use YOUR set up for personal use. I would just make it clear that ONLY business is to be done on the computers and since there is 'no expectation of privacy' on the system that is NOT YOURS? Perfectly fine for them to be checking THEIR OWN SYSTEM.

P

[rosepetal209]

Most companies do look at the sites you go to. I think they should.

If you are on the time clock then you should be doing the work they pay you for not playing on myspace.  My step mom got a hotmail account because her company checks her work emails often.

Many companies have added things like Netnanny that let them block specific websites or even sites containing key words like "bombs", "drugs", "sex" or any other key words they choose. If any site has any of the keywords they have chosen then the computer will not load the page period. It will also keep a log of each blocked attempt to access websites that are blocked.

 

[MawagaMom]

I definately think that companies should be paying attention to what their employees are doing on their equipment.  There are lots of sites that can severely infect a computer with viruses and lots of them are music and game sites.  The company should have every right to protect their equipment and the time that the employees are spending at their facility.  They should know they are paying the person to work and not to play games or other things. 

[MinstrelMommy]

I think that if you're working from home, on your own personal computer, then it's none of your employers' business what you do on that computer.  It's yours - you paid for it. 

But I can see why they would snoop around and look into what employees are doing on the computers they are paying for.  Those are the company's computers - the company is paying for them.  They have the right to do whatever they want on them, just like we have the right to do whatever we want on the computers we paid for.

When I worked for the hospital, we were allowed to get online during our breaks, but be were aware that whatever we were doing online, they would know about.  Plus, they had certain sites blocked.  Annoying, when I couldn't get on MySpace - but they weren't my computers. 

[Karatemomlisa]

I think companies have the right to "snoop."  Also, I do work from home, but I do that work only on a company laptop and not mine.

[eaglemama2]

Yes, yes and yes, LOL.  As an employee you should always assume that you are being monitored.

Quoting tericared:

Quoting stormcris:

If you are on their computer they have the right to say no personal use or to say OK to personal use...if they say OK to personal use and want to snoop then they need to have the person sign an agreement stating they understood that any web use can be monitored by the company, without doing so it is much like wire tapping, since no party of the usage would be knowledgeable to the monitoring. Then the company must provide a way to be certain that the web use they are monitoring is indeed conducted by the person who they believed to be using the machine. The easiest way for this to be done is by having a sign in that is password protected and automatically logs a person off after a certain period of inactivity. This is for people who use computers at their employers place of business.

For home use the employer should have a log on site that automatically monitors if a computer logging into the network has a virus or malware, beyond that there is no reason for the company to pry as most computers in this situation are the private property of the employee.

There are companies who have gone as far as to do internet searches and hack emails to learn of employees personal business....this I think should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law ....if it is illegal for the common citizen it should be illegal for all. Further more any collection of personal log ins and passwords is deemed to be hacking as well and should be prosecuted.

Looks like you covered just  about everything..