Computer Privacy At Work - Comments Page 1

I believe you can't state often enough that most - if not all - of these tips can get you fired, depending on the company standards.

Hi Bob, Tourbus rider for several years now... I'm quite surprised, and disappointed, you would advise Tourbus riders to a) install software on work computers. b) attempt to circumvent or violate the Internet usage rules of their workplace.

Many companies do not allow installation of non-IT approved software on work computers. There are a lot of good reasons for this position. Licensing issues - all software installed on each computer at work is supposed to be licensed. Malware and Virus vulnerabilities, Potential performance issues.

As far as Internet usage, cruising 'inappropriate' websites at work puts the employer at risk of: sexual harassment lawsuits, union and or labor board complaints, human right commission investigations. It's work. Be an adult and play within the rules. Keep your personal life at home. Deciding to try to circumvent or go outside of your company's Internet usage rules can have serious consequences.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Lou, I'm not sure you read the entire article! I did say that people should check their "company's Internet and computer usage policies to ensure you do not engage in anything that might get you fired." I also said "employees are expected to follow those policies" and "it might be the safest bet to do your recreational browsing on your computer at home." I will however add a note to the article about the potential problems of installing unauthorized software at work, thanks.

Hi Bob, Peacefire.org is an excellent resource, for admins and those who would like to stealth surf. It is most focused on school/educational blocking. It also has excellent discussion about why filtering based is flawed, and some of the non obvious dangers of it.
- The statement about web based email will prevent your mail being read is a little inaccurate. Nothing is private. That should be in most acceptable use policys. It is trival & free to use a program like VNC on every computer, which enables you to view or take over a computer screen/interface. Also a key stroke logger would do so, but it's more likley something similar to VNC would be installed anyway, as it's such a handy trouble shooting tool.
- Typically someone will try one of the top10 anonymizers, get blocked, try again etc until success. Good sysadmins will look at the list generating of hits on thier blocked sites. These are often sortable by category to make it easier. Your account is far more likey to be looked at for "Proxy Loophole" hits than normal blocked hits.
- Good workplaces should allow some personal use, at least imo. But if they don't, it is thier equipment, costs and rules.

Bob, you are disseminating bad information. Perhaps some shops with old proxy software could not track all incoming and outgoing traffic, but certainly all current proxies can. And any company that has more than a couple of people uses a proxy server. EVERY packet, incoming and outgoing, can be tracked. No matter how people want to hide their activity, if the I.S. Dept wants to (and is good enough), they can track your activity.

Most often, the I.S. Dept doesn't look at everyone, there's just too much info. BUT, if a manager requests, I.S. can provide detailed logs of your traffic. Now, most managers don't care if you do a little on-line shopping or check the news now and again. Just like they don't care if you make a personal call once in a while. But if your work is suffering, and your manager wants to make a case against you, your internet logs are one the ways she can do this.

So my only recommendation is NOT to use the internet in any way at odds with your companies internet policy.

I'm with Lou. And I did read the whole article - I just don't think it's a good idea to tell people how to cheat even if you use tag lines like the ones you added. I use my company machine for company tasks. They allow me to access a few things like banking and personal e-mail as a trade-off for not wasting hours surfing. I have full admin rights on my machine, which would make cheating dead simple, but why would I? I'm there to work and they do give me a few freedoms in exchange for not cheating.

IT departments are getting more "big-brotherish" every day, and the more people know about circumvention of policy, the tighter the IT boys will turn the screws. That ultimately will cost us those tiny freedoms we have and will result in more companies adopting what my buddy has to put up with - a daily download of a file that records every keystroke into an analysis application that looks for words and word combinations. No personal use is tolerated and he has to defend what he writes in business correspondence roughly five times a year to the geeks.

Play by the rules so they don't change 'em! They never make them better.

Hi Bob, Our company has a software that allows for "snapshots" to be taken remotely of any employee's computer screen. I've seen a printed copy of a snapshot of an email I sent to another employee. So, even if someone were to use their personal email from Yahoo, etc, doesn't mean it's still private if their employee has this same type of software. It's best to think of email as a postcard that anyone can see.

Agree with the above, it is the company's system and if they want to be hard *sses, they have that right. It might also be time to look for a better employer, as work environment counts for as much as money in employee satisfaction.

Given the choice of personal email accounts, I would choose Google simply because you are going to "google.com," not "hotmail.com" which is so obviously a personal email account.

I kind of find it amusing and bizarre that there are companies that have enough IT staff that they can spend significant resources spying on employees without good reason. I mean, if red flags go up, or a manager thinks staff is screwing around, that's one thing. But some of these responses imply the IT staff is checking on staff regularly, which is pretty frightening.

If I have a work-issued laptop computer, does that mean that the i.t. department can still monitor my internet activity while I surf the web at home? For example, I know that my IT dept can log onto my computer and remotely "take over", ie. install software or help fix a driver problem. I hate it when they do this because they just start moving my mouse around (usually while I'm on the phone with them), and there is no warning from the computer that someone is remotely accessing my desktop. Can they still do this if I am away from my desk using the computer at home?

In a way I can justify or at least understand my employer's need to monitor my youtube activity at work, but the idea of their logging my internet usage away from the office seems invasive and freaky. Is that even possible? I'm afraid to hear the answer because it's probably yes. Btw, thanks for the informative article!

EDITOR'S NOTE: They can only do so if you connect through your employer's Internet service. If you connect with your home ISP, then no.

The City of Virginia Beach (VA) uses the WebSense software that blocks web-based email providers such as Hotmail, Yahoo, etc. They even block the web-based email access provided by your home Internet provider. The IT department blocks Anonymizers, music download sites, gambling-related sites, hate-group sites (not that I have visited them), and some of the more computer-savvy websites in which work-arounds are talked about. As older computers are replaced, the IT department's grip gets tighter.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Viva la Self Employment!

I use my personal computer and plug into my company's network at work. Any way to protect myself? Is this compromising my company's security?

EDITOR'S NOTE: You should make sure your hard drive is not shared on the network. And be aware that any viruses or spyware on your PC could possibly infect other computers on the company network.