> Employers own the content of all correspondence > That has been time tested.
Not true, from my experience. Expecially if the correspondance is non-business related. Actually, I was involved in a case where the employer was successfully sued by the employee for violating their employee's privacy. The employer was threatening to fire certain employees, based on the content (most likely porn) of personal Emails sent and read from work, and Web access to some sites. We installed the original tracking system, and we de-installed it after they lost the suit, and re-installed the new solution that did not put the employer at risk to lose another costly law suit of that nature. Granted, this took place probably 8 years ago, when I was still in the LAN network integration business. There could have been newer law changing legislation. Regardless of what the current laws are or are not, an Employer really needs to think about whether they really want to go there in the first place, to risk defending litigation. Privacy issues can be very complicated, and expensive to defend. By default the legal system favors the employee in almost all aspects, and the employer is held responsible for the burden to setup the policies, proceedures, and agreements in advance in a way that are law biding. At minimum, a clear plan has to be defined on what the privacy policy is. In many cases if a policy is set AFTER an employee starts employment, it can be argued that the employee was Coerced/forced to sign an agreement that they did not want to agree to, or they'd lose the job that they rely on, which they committed to based on other terms. So there is even the possibilty that signed privacy agreements can be thrown out as non-inforcible. Again, these are very generalized statements, and there are many variables that go into what is and isn't legally inforcible. Installing a solution that allows one to manage there network, completely avoids the privacy issues and any law suits, and often accomplishes the same goals, to keep employees focused on work and not personal activities. To be clear, there are four issue here. 1) Tracking someone's use without letting them know that you are tracking it. (remember why someone must disclose if a telephone call or conversation is being recorded?) 2) Tracking someone's use with or without an official privacy/usage policy. (remember discussions regarding ISPs privacy issues) 3) Whether you are allowed to track someone's personal/private Internet use in the first place, and if so, how its distinguished which use/content is personal/private versus business. 4) Whether being "on-the-clock" and within a "Business office" is enough to for someone's Internet use/content to be considered "Business" property. Prior to tracking Employee's use the Employer should have a clear legal understanding of how they can defend each and every one of these things, are they are putting themselves at a legal risk. I can tell you, the case I was involved in was not a small claims court case. Big dollars were put on the table. If this same situation occured to a small company, I'd bet that 99% of the employers would be forced to settle out of court early, and payoff the employee, because the cost to defend the case would far outway the benefit, and getting compensation from the employee for the legal fees is not a likely thing to occur. Its something to think about. Tom DeReggi RapidDSL & Wireless, Inc IntAirNet- Fixed Wireless Broadband ----- Original Message ----- From: "Chuck McCown" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "WISPA General List" <wireless@wispa.org> Sent: Wednesday, August 20, 2008 11:41 AM Subject: Re: [WISPA] Employee Tracking Program > Not true. Employers own the content of all correspondence, whether > electronic or otherwise. > That has been time tested. > Plus, in this state we can record the phone calls. We can record you on > the > phone without even notifying you if we call you or if you call us. > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Tom DeReggi" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "WISPA General List" <wireless@wispa.org> > Sent: Wednesday, August 20, 2008 10:40 AM > Subject: Re: [WISPA] Employee Tracking Program > > >> Also note there are privacy legal issues here. Some opinions are that it >> is >> illegal for an employer to secretly watch their employee's Internet >> content >> and/or usage. >> That information is considered the property of the employee. This is why >> many organizations chose to restrict what their employees can do, apposed >> to >> watch what is being done. >> >> If information is being tracked, it should be tracked in a non-biases >> consistent way, with disclosure, or deployed with an alternate duplicate >> purpose . For example, if you install a Proxy server, that data will >> often >> be available, but it could be defended as a security protection measure. >> (apposed to invasion of privacy and spying on employees) >> >> Tom DeReggi >> RapidDSL & Wireless, Inc >> IntAirNet- Fixed Wireless Broadband >> >> >> ----- Original Message ----- >> From: "Eric Rogers" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >> To: "WISPA General List" <wireless@wispa.org> >> Sent: Wednesday, August 20, 2008 11:11 AM >> Subject: [WISPA] Employee Tracking Program >> >> >>>I have a company that would like to track real-time and summary >>> information of internet activity of it's employees (by IP). They are >>> looking for summary information, not email content/instant messenger >>> chats/passwords. What would be ideal would be a passive device that >>> acts like a sniffer that either hits layer 7 and reads the >>> www.xxxxxx.com from the data portion of the packets, or just looks at >>> the DNS traffic, tracks IPs and reports it. Maybe even amount of >>> bandwidth spent at each IP... or something of that nature. >>> >>> >>> >>> Any ideas? I have recommended software that is a keylogger and >>> recorder, but they want something that is totally transparent, i.e. >>> sniffer. >>> >>> >>> >>> Thanks, >>> >>> >>> >>> Eric Rogers >>> >>> Precision Data Solutions, LLC >>> >>> (317) 831-3000 x200 >>> >>> >>> >>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >>> WISPA Wants You! Join today! >>> http://signup.wispa.org/ >>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >>> >>> WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org >>> >>> Subscribe/Unsubscribe: >>> http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless >>> >>> Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ >>> >>> >>> -- >>> No virus found in this incoming message. >>> Checked by AVG. >>> Version: 7.5.524 / Virus Database: 270.6.4/1616 - Release Date: >>> 8/16/2008 >>> 5:12 PM >>> >>> >> >> >> >> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >> WISPA Wants You! Join today! >> http://signup.wispa.org/ >> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >> >> WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org >> >> Subscribe/Unsubscribe: >> http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless >> >> Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ >> > > > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > WISPA Wants You! Join today! > http://signup.wispa.org/ > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org > > Subscribe/Unsubscribe: > http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless > > Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ > > > -- > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG. > Version: 7.5.524 / Virus Database: 270.6.4/1616 - Release Date: 8/16/2008 > 5:12 PM > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wants You! 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