Internet monitoring at work

Our man in Havana

Is it legal for your employer to monitor you at work?

KdjaCL

yup their internet can do what they want.

kdjac

Our man in Havana

I assume you have to be warned of such monitoring?

fisty

not neccessarily, you're using their equipment and their bandwidth so any information on said computer or network is theirs - and that includes internet and e-mail.

have a look into things called proxys, that might help if you don't wanna make it easy for them to look at what yer looking at.

davej

Ok all of you guys have assumed the original post was about monitoring an employees internet usage, but what about things like video surveillance?

This appears to me to be a very grey area in law.

davej

KdjaCL

It says "Internet monitoring at work" in the title.

And you can be videoed its thier property they can secure it any way they like.

//I work in a CD rep plant with really high security we get videod, montiored, searched, scanned etc:


kdjac

ganam

... you're using their equipment and their bandwidth so any information on said computer or network is theirs - and that includes internet and e-mail.

I'd have to disagree with you fisty. A company may own the infrastructure, but employees have certain legal rights to privacy of communications.

How certain they are is, in IMHO, very much open to the courts to rule upon.

But an EU Data Protection Working Party said last year that it was of the view that online and off-line situations should not be treated differently without reason and as such emails benefit from the same protection of fundamental rights as traditional paper mail".

It would be up to a court to decide whether email has the same status as telephone and letters. I think that it would, but it hasn't been tested yet.

Lastly, if a company is monitoring internet use and that information is being stored, the company would be legally obliged to register the fact with the Data Protection Office.

ganam

woolymammoth

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/workplace-surveillance.htm

just incase anyone was interested... :ninja:

fisty

ok well think of it this way.
You write a letter on company headed paper with a company pen, you put it in a company stamped envelope and put a stamp the company paid for on the letter.

Who own the content of that letter?
The same applies to e-mail in my opinion.

Most companies don't give a ****e about what you look at (excluding porn) as long as your performance levels don't drop.

Wouldn't worry about it too much, Its only the serious abusers like warez monkeys that will get themselves in trouble using company bandwidth.

Most companies worth its salt would have these things firewalled off anyway.

ganam

You write a letter on company headed paper with a company pen, you put it in a company stamped envelope and put a stamp the company paid for on the letter.

Sure, but that wouldn' be considered a *personal* letter. However, say you receive a letter addressed to you in your workplace. From a friend who has lost your home address perhaps. The lettter might have personal written on it.

A company can't legally open that letter. Same with an inbound personal phone call - it's illegal to listen or record such a call, except in certain agreed circumstances.

IMO, personal email should be treated as private correspondence. The *ownership* of the hardware (server, pabx, telephone handsets etc) is irrevelant to personal rights of privacy. Laws (and their interpretation) apply to people, not equipment.

The issue of *ownership* is not that black-and-white in the workplace IMO. For example, if you see a tap left on in the office (or whatever) toilet, maybe you shouldn't turn it off because, after all, you don't *own* it? What about health and safety issues? Is stuff that's dangerous or hazardous none of my business, because I don't *own* it?

Anyway, I do worry about it, as you can see . The right to personal communications in the workplace was hard won over the decades.

It would be wrong to see those rights taken away because the law hasn't kept pace and some employers are therefore making up their own rules.

regards
ganam

Capt'n Midnight

you know these things

- If you download shareware and install it - then on day 31 company directors are liable for a jail sentence.

- co-workers can bring a sexual harassement suit against the company as a result of your actions

- emails may be treated as legal documents

- your industry (and/or company) may have a history of monitoring

- your company may have sensitive/confidential data

- it is possible to use the internet elsewhere - at home / internet cafe / it's even free in many public libraries

- if you are using the internet then by definition you are breaking your contract where you agree to work for the company while they are paying you

- many contracts state that intellectual property developed while employeed have to be transferred to the employer

- you can't have it both ways - if you don't want to be monitored then you would have to take full responisbility for your actions -eg: you would have to pay for any cleanup costs form viruses / pay legal fees ./ fines on sexual harassement etc. - but since the possible damages could be more than you will earn (€100,000 fine etc.) this ain't gonna happen

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While you could say that the company could limit access to safe sites.. the last quote we got for surf control was more than the leased line internet connection.. and then that's before considering the antivirus and email antivirus / anti spam programs. (none of which would be needed if you could disable all mechanisms by which employees could upload or download files or emails)

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Remember the tie is a symbol of slavery (neck irons etc)