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> I've come to accept there is no privacy on work computers. It has always puzzled my why anyone began to assume they did have this privacy. I have been around
by jpwgarrison 8y ago
> I've come to accept there is no privacy on work computers.
It has always puzzled my why anyone began to assume they did have this privacy. I have been around long enough to see the token ring to ethernet transition, and (formerly) as a network engineer trying to jam web 1.5 business through a fractional T1. Never mind your privacy, all that network throughput and CPU is paid for and hard-fought-for and it costs a lot in CAPEX and OPEX. Getting to do a little online banking or email on work gear has always seemed like a short term scam to me.
Can you put a bitcoin rig under your desk and use your employer's electricity to make money? Yeah, if it looks like a footrest, until the culture and policy catch up. This already happened with postage and long distance phone calls.
You never had a right to privacy on work computers. We all pretended it was a little perk for a few years, but the risk pf letting you do personal stuff is not worth it anymore for companies of a certain size.
- pjmlp 8y agoWell, it is a jurisdiction issue. While I agree with you, many countries with good work laws do limit what employers are actually allowed to see from their employees' data. Meaning if the company lets someone go based on data they capture, and it was the kind of illegal one, then they better prepare to sign up some checks. For example, on Germany a company is not allowed to make use of how long one is online to create some kind of productivity measure. The problem is that many prefer not to bother with work law, not even "work law for dummies" kind of books.
- woolvalley 8y agoI don't have a 'right' to privacy in my workplace bathroom stall either, but it's pretty fucking creepy if my employer watches me take a shit on the toilet too. Now imagine if most employees didn't quite understand what the 'door security gates' are really doing, and you start to understand where the problems start. That's the crux of the issue for me. Also there is another perspective about labor laws, and if a society should allow employers to do such things in the first place.
- CPLX 8y ago> I don't have a 'right' to privacy in my workplace bathroom stall either Actually you do. That scenario is legally distinct from your computer use.
- woolvalley 8y agoThats great! We should extend it to people's private communications on work computers, because it's about equivalent. Like Austria :) https://www.taylorwessing.com/globaldatahub/article_austria_employee_privacy.html https://www.taylorwessing.com/globaldatahub/article_austria_...
- CPLX 8y agoI don't think looking at my genitals is equivalent to monitoring my work computer.
- adamsea 8y agoPeople are imperfect humans. Someone is gonna forget and check their email, as they habitually do, since we are not trained at birth to segregate our computer usage by machine, while they are at the office (where they spend the majority of the day) on their work machine (where they spend the majority of their Time). Take this example and extend it .... That said I agree with you and do think being cautious about what one does on ones work machine is very important.