Privacy is an endangered species at work.

January 3, 2001 8:35 AM

Privacy is an endangered species at work. Not that this is a surprise... but I'm wondering. Will we see a wave of MIS professionals who become conscientious objectors on this topic, similar to the responses engendered by 'defense' projects in the early days of computing?
posted by baylink (4 comments total)

Don't mind if they do watch. I'm not doing anything I shouldn't. [Unless of course you think hamster porn is objectionable]
posted by uide at 11:30 AM on January 3, 2001

That use of "review" and "monitor" raises huge weasel-word hackles on my neck. Sure, they review it -- if they ever need to. Monitor? scan the log for "sex".

Most of the time that I've seen privacy "violated" it's been as adjunct to other actions, i.e. "this employee isn't getting his work done, is she on the internet all day?" Most employers know that a happy worker is a productive worker, and consider things like personal surfing a perk that should not be abused, similar to taking coffee packets home.

I think that having clear policies in place is good, though I'm not sure how much it changes.
posted by dhartung at 12:41 PM on January 3, 2001

As long as they don't start scanning for Metafilter page views, I think I'm OK.
I think Dan's right, I'd hope my employer has better things to do than continually monitor everyone's web use, just as they don't monitor everyone's phone usage for private calls. But I'll bet they go straight to the logs when there's a few too many staff on the payroll and it offers a way to shed staff without having to pay redundancy to anyone, Orange Telecom perhaps?

posted by Markb at 3:03 PM on January 3, 2001

I love the benefits of working in the IT industry. At my current job i have none of these worries, and me and my boss, the IT manager of the company even get free internet access through our RAS box. Yeah Baby!

It is quite amazing from my experiences, as to how much leniency is given to people employed in the IT industry, even when i worked in a help desk support position.
posted by Zool at 3:27 PM on January 3, 2001