[techtalk] Sick of surf and porn addicts

Caitlyn M. Martin caitlynmaire at earthlink.net
Tue May 29 08:46:59 EST 2001


James wrote:

> Just as a company is free to
> ban personal 'phone calls, or charge for them, but not to record them, the
> company can prohibit WWW surfing, or charge users for the bandwidth they
> use - but logging what users do is a violation of their privacy. Usage
> logs must not be made available to ANYONE without a court order (that
> bit's a legal requirement, BTW).

Actually, the courts have disagreed with you.  Companies, at least in the US, 
can log usage legally.  Indeed, both my current and previous employers do.  
Our web filter server also sends you a nastygram if you go to an 
inappropriate site, and copies quite a bit of management.  Hence people tend 
to avoid such sites like the plague where I work.  It's not worth the hassle.

The only caveat is I believe they have to tell the employees that they *are* 
logging all of it.  Both places I've worked over the past several years make 
that *very* clear during initial orientation.  You know about it from the day 
you are hired.

All the best,
Caity




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