Internet and Network Usage Policy

[BostonBum0]

I know a lot of the people here work for companies with internet access. I was wondering how many of you had to sign an "Internet and Network Usage Policy" and if you agreed with it.

My company e-mailed me one last week and my largest problem with signing it is the wording that seems to imply any software or MP3's I place on my work station become the property of the company.

Anyone else had problems with theirs?

[Charles]

You work for a company who pays you, you do what they say. If in doubt, don't put software or music on their machines.

[Lunch of Kong]

If it's ambiguous, ask for clarification. I'm sure they'll be happy to oblige.

[Hanzii]

I have agreed that my company can read my mail if they suspect me of doing illegal stuff or stuff damaging the company from my machine (industrial spionage), but if they choose to do so, a memeber of my union must be present.

There's absolutely no rules against what I can put on my machine or what webpages I can visit (as long as it doesn't intefere with production and isn't illegal).
As well as they like that I answer mail and do research at home, they accept that I read QT3, shop, do my banking or play a quick round of CoD with my co-workers.
They know that if we were to count the hours they get more than they give.
(most comapnies I know are like that here)

[noun]

My company does a lot of things wrong, but the Internet policy is pretty fair and unambiguous. Basically, they don't want employees using the Internet for excessive personal use, and they go on to list examples like downloading music and movies and playing games. Perfectly reasonable.

[Wallapuctus]

My company has an open policy as well. The internet is pretty much wide open for us, and they trust our judgment as to what not to browse.

I stream Sirius pretty much all day long and they've never complained to me.

[UncleSmoothie]

My job demands unfettered internet access and we get it. My company has no policy that I'm aware of.

[Siren]

No policy here. But I'd sign one. I've got nothing to hide!

[forgeforsaken]

I
My company e-mailed me one last week and my largest problem with signing it is the wording that seems to imply any software or MP3's I place on my work station become the property of the company.


That is a little odd, but remember the work machine is the companies, as is the email server, the network etc. A lot of people seem to think that their work system is "theirs." Being in IT I see this all the time.

[mystery]

A few years back, I moved the office to a roaming profiles installation with group policy enforcement. Without administrator access, a worker can't install anything (unless it matches certain application lists).

I actually had to do this as I was spending each day, for extended hours, cleaning up peoples' workstations and laptops of viruses, trojans, malware -- you name it. I think the straw that broke the camel's back was when the boss (who really should have known better) decided to share the Paris Hilton video with 50 of his closest friends. As a 45MB email attachment. And he guessed at least 20 of the email addresses.

We haven't asked anyone to sign anything regarding ownership or IT policies. Then again, we're a small office.

[Rorschach]

My job demands unfettered internet access and we get it. My company has no policy that I'm aware of.

How do you handle the sexual harassment lawsuits when the downloaded porn creates a hostile work environment?

How do you handle the MPAA/RIAA when they come knocking at your door for the copyrighted content downloaded to your network?

[Wholly Schmidt]

How do you handle the sexual harassment lawsuits when the downloaded porn creates a hostile work environment?

How do you handle the MPAA/RIAA when they come knocking at your door for the copyrighted content downloaded to your network?

Well I imagine the "so long as it's not actually illegal" part goes without saying. For example, my company does not actually have a "no murder" policy.

[mono]

I'm IT at our small 70-ish user shop. There is a required signed agreement for new-hires to keep Internet usage confined to 'appropriate' sites, and not to watch movies, TV, etc. It's more of a way for the company to cover its ass than to actually restrict usage in practice. In reality we have a pretty open Internet policy. Use your judgment and get your work done, and you mostly won't be hassled.

I only allow a few select services in or out of the network. Unless explicitly flagged as OK, everything is dropped. I do filter by proxy porn, proxy/anomymizer sites, P2P, torrents and streaming music (since we just don't have the bandwidth for it). I allow folks to put photos, iTunes and MP3's on their local PC's, not on the server. They're made aware that the computer could melt, be taken away, explode, at any time, so personal media on the PC better be backed up at home.

[BobJustBob]

My job has a very restrictive policy. They basically admit that they can spy on your web access and read your email whenever they want. Many many sites are completely blocked, including this one. I hate it. I'm going to quit.

[VictoriaWong]

The only part I disagree with is the part where almost all images are blocked. Even from printing, which we pay 7c/ss sheet for.
They watch us, but I don't blame them.

[Equis]

My job demands unfettered internet access and we get it. My company has no policy that I'm aware of.

Pretty much the same. Then again, I'm also one of the IT guys on staff managing the internet policy. We trust the people we hire to be responsible about their surfing habits, and won't monitor/interrupt/admonish unless they're missing deadlines or complaints have increased.

[Lunch of Kong]

Our IT dept logs all IM traffic so that we are SarbOx compliant. Sarbanes-Oxley section 802 require tamper-proof records for electronic communications including IM.

It's for this reason that I use Meebo for my non-business-related IM's, as I can send the IM traffic encrypted over port 443/https. That way, when my friends IM me about the abortion they just had or whatever, it doesn't go on record.

[BostonBum0]

That is a little odd, but remember the work machine is the companies, as is the email server, the network etc. A lot of people seem to think that their work system is "theirs." Being in IT I see this all the time.

I agree, but I have to HTPC's I built out of computers they planned on throwing away...The wording I gave was not completely accurate, it is as follows:

Software or file downloads onto the company’s network become the property of the Company, except where such ownership would violate any applicable licenses, copyrights, or laws. Any software or files with such licenses, copyrights, or laws may only be used in a manner consistent with their licenses and/or copyrights. No employee may use Walsh’s facilities to knowingly download or distribute pirated software or data.

I get the pirated stuff, but I have a few songs I bought on iTunes....They get them because I downloaded them?

How do you handle the sexual harassment lawsuits when the downloaded porn creates a hostile work environment?

How do you handle the MPAA/RIAA when they come knocking at your door for the copyrighted content downloaded to your network?

I work in a construction office with about 25 workstations that are used daily. Of those 25, 3 are used by women. Of those women only one would ever find offense and her solution is to walk away. She sends dirty jokes sometimes, but weird things get her upset.

Our IT dept logs all IM traffic so that we are SarbOx compliant. Sarbanes-Oxley section 802 require tamper-proof records for electronic communications including IM.

It's for this reason that I use Meebo for my non-business-related IM's, as I can send the IM traffic encrypted over port 443/https. That way, when my friends IM me about the abortion they just had or whatever, it doesn't go on record.

Wait a second.....are you telling me that it is very likely that my work logs my IM's? Just because of the Sarbanes-Oxley act?


For clarification, our internet access is nearly unfettered. We can even use BitTorrent and P2P programs(any IT's upset about that?). We kind of need to do that though, because we e-mail CAD files daily....My problem is the e-mail reading. I have limited control over what my friends send to my work e-mail. I know the controller reads their e-mails and will have conversations about them with whomever he pleases. He made one girl cry because he was discussing her personal life

[Lorini]

You do not want to download anything that could be construed as sexual harassment on a workplace computer. Trust me. Even if you think the women 'don't care'. They might care one day, once someone points out to them that they could get a nice chunk of change in a lawsuit. In California, both the employer and the employee committing the harassment can be sued.

I work for a federal contractor, so the rules are different. I cannot use any type of encryption software to encrypt anything for any reason, nor can I surf anonymously. They record all keystrokes. I'm on leave now, but before I left, there was no policy that they owned the stuff you put on the computer, but they certainly own the computer, so if there was an issue they might assert they own the software and music too.

As companies get tired of the dumb things people do on the internet and with their computers, you are going to see a lot more restrictions on what you can do with company property. I don't see workers winning many legal arguments about their 'right' to use company computers for their personal use, so it's unlikely that the climate will get better, just worse.

[EvilIdler]

We're borrowing offices at the moment, sharing space with other companies. The 'net access is (mis-)managed by
some separate entity, and lots of ports are blocked. It's a hassle to get them open, but at least we can surf and SSH.
Common ports, like CPanel uses for managing domains and webspaces, are unfortunately blocked. That limits things a bit,
but we'll have unfiltered access once we've got a new office, hopefully.

I don't think we're running much of a risk due to content downloaded, because one company we share space with is
a bunch of pirates (I hear them passing around cracks for Photoshop and such all the time).
I don't think it's possible to offend anyone, either, as half the few women in our office make dildos and scary sextoys.

Plus, this country doesn't mind nipples in ads. Our regular webpages would be offensive to the FCC.

[Skipper]

I'm in IT, and was formerly lead for IT strategy at a large global company. We do have a terms of use document but this is the largest company I've worked for that does not filter internet access (though they do monitor if there is a perceived problem.) The laws for both filtering and monitoring employee access are changing throughout the world and what's acceptable here would be completely unacceptable in other locations (Germany for instance.) Thus to keep the same global strategy, many companies have been easing restrictions, not enforcing them to a tighter degree. My company does do bandwidth shaping though, so in effect they maintain user activity by limiting how much bandwidth is given to certain types of applications. I have no issue with this, as it makes a lot of business sense. Total bandwidth given to something like iTunes for example should never interfere with the transmission of shipping documents or payroll data.

Part of the document you usually get covers your company in the case that something you install damages their network or causes a loss of productivity in any way. Another part usually covers the company in case you place something you deem valuable on the computer, which is then lost or destroyed in some way, and you then demand the company pay you.

I've never encountered any that explicitly state they own the files you put onto the PC though, that's a bit strange. I agree with Lunch of Kong, I would ask for clarification on that issue. Especially so if you plan on say, installing iTunes or something similar.

[Vincent_GC]

My work's policy is basicly "if it's on a company owned PC, it's owned by the company". While internet and PC access is fairly unrestricted, they do have it known that they can snoop on everything that you do if they deem necessary.

I've yet to have any problems, and that includes playing WC3 on some lan games during the off hours here and there.

[Kael]

Well I imagine the "so long as it's not actually illegal" part goes without saying. For example, my company does not actually have a "no murder" policy.

The difference is an employee can setup a bittorrent server on a work pc and get the company themselves in legal trouble. The same for child porn, harrasement, etc.

If you kill someone the company isnt at fault or responsible for making sure you don't kill someone. So they don't act to prevent the activity. If they put you in a position where killing someone would be partially their fault (say they gave you guns or hazardous material) they would be responsible for training/restricting/enforcing rules to curb bad behavior.

So yes, your company does have plenty of policys to stop illegal behavior. It just doesnt have policys around illegal behavior that dont apply to the company.

As a last fact, very few companies actually care about what their employees are doing on the web. But they REALLY REALLY care about legal issues they can get into or the cost of these activities. A company looking to spend big money to increase their network access to the internet to habdle their capacity isnt going to happy to find out that 70% of their current utilization is being consumed by bittorrent, streaming media and other personal uses.

[Euri]

Office of 800 people, so rather restrictive internet guidelines. Every station can be recorded remotely and every station randomly is. Anything done on the computer belongs to the company. Any communication sent or received from the computer can be read. The exception are a few computers next to our lunch room which don't have internal firewall access and are not spied on at all. The only limitations on those are installation limitations so people can't download a bunch of spyware and whatnot. Our IT is pretty good at installing pretty much anything people want, so it isn't a problem.

[metta]

The company I'm working with right now gives its employees internet access, but blocks bit torrent sites. Which makes sense to me: they're a television broadcaster. I wouldn't have any problem signing something that limited what I did on their computers and their network.

Frankly, we have a pretty aggressive schedule - everyone steals time from post production - who has time to surf?

[Lunch of Kong]

Wait a second.....are you telling me that it is very likely that my work logs my IM's? Just because of the Sarbanes-Oxley act?


From what you've written, it's highly unlikely, because your IT department seems to be just one cowboy who doesn't really give a crap about the kinds of liability issues he's leaving your company open to.

Oh. And any IT guy who reads random employee emails without being directed to do so by management ought to be fired on the spot.

[EvilIdler]

Oh. And any IT guy who reads random employee emails without being directed to do so by management ought to be fired on the spot.

He should be reported, and that is hopefully what will happen.

[Lurb]

Reason #3423 for not disliking my job as much as I do:
Fat pipes Internet anarchy.

[Skipper]

Our IT dept logs all IM traffic so that we are SarbOx compliant. Sarbanes-Oxley section 802 require tamper-proof records for electronic communications including IM.

It's for this reason that I use Meebo for my non-business-related IM's, as I can send the IM traffic encrypted over port 443/https. That way, when my friends IM me about the abortion they just had or whatever, it doesn't go on record.

We will have a similar system shortly (monitored IM's) which is why no IT policy will ever get around a dedicated user who is hellbent and willing to wait on the right application to come along. This is also why a lot of companies are instead easing network access restrictions and monitoring work habits instead.

You can get SSL wrapped applications for a lot of stuff these days. It would still show up as network use, and an IDS might spot the traffic and be able tell what's going on, but unless you work for the CIA, odds are you're safe from anyone reading your conversations.

On the other hand, if I were the IT manager and got a report on my top 10 SSL traffic users and one or two folks were miles above everyone else I would probably question why. Good news though, if they are like me, most IT managers don't have the time to even worry about that, much less what you do on the internet all day. We're too busy working and planning on which coworker pulls the crap duty over the weekend so the rest of us can play WoW.

[Hanzii]

You do not want to download anything that could be construed as sexual harassment on a workplace computer. Trust me. Even if you think the women 'don't care'. They might care one day, once someone points out to them that they could get a nice chunk of change in a lawsuit. In California, both the employer and the employee committing the harassment can be sued.

I work for a federal contractor, so the rules are different. I cannot use any type of encryption software to encrypt anything for any reason, nor can I surf anonymously. They record all keystrokes. I'm on leave now, but before I left, there was no policy that they owned the stuff you put on the computer, but they certainly own the computer, so if there was an issue they might assert they own the software and music too.

As companies get tired of the dumb things people do on the internet and with their computers, you are going to see a lot more restrictions on what you can do with company property. I don't see workers winning many legal arguments about their 'right' to use company computers for their personal use, so it's unlikely that the climate will get better, just worse.


Glad we haven't become such a sue happy society of whiners. If the threshold for what's considered sexual harassment were as low on my workspace I guess our secretary (female) on of the other editors and possible me would be gone tomorrow.

There's two reason we have no restrictions on computers and internet usage apart from common sense (and the law of the land): We're a media organisation so of course the net is necessary research, but since this freedom applies to everyone not just journalists another reason is that the company I work for realise that happy workers stay longer and do better work. So they look a work quality not hours punched in

[gellar]

Our IT dept logs all IM traffic so that we are SarbOx compliant. Sarbanes-Oxley section 802 require tamper-proof records for electronic communications including IM.

It's for this reason that I use Meebo for my non-business-related IM's, as I can send the IM traffic encrypted over port 443/https. That way, when my friends IM me about the abortion they just had or whatever, it doesn't go on record.

Holy crap... that is NOT good from your company's perspective. That's a loophole around the IM policy that should be known to your compliance officer and closed immediately. They can get into serious crap for it. SarbOx isn't specific, but most people are using the NASD and SEC 17a rules as a guideline and this is directly against that. ALL electronic communication must be monitored or prevented. Period.

Or, they could also be man in the middling your SSL traffic via your proxies, decrypting it, and logging it that way. That's unlikely unless you are in a huge company, but still possible. I hope for their sake they are doing that - there's no way they should let you have access to Meebo if they are trying to be SarbOx compliant.

[BostonBum0]

He should be reported, and that is hopefully what will happen.
For some reason the girls have never brought it up to the owner. One of the ex-secretaries said it would be easier to just put up with it than say anything because he is their boss and would make their life a living hell.

[Lurb]

Glad we haven't become such a sue happy society of whiners. If the threshold for what's considered sexual harassment were as low on my workspace I guess our secretary (female) on of the other editors and possible me would be gone tomorrow.


Same here, I had a big post written about that and decided not to go ahead, it's hard for me no to sound snarky and patronising about this.

The guy in front of me runs an ever growing collection of hi-res celebrity pics as screensaver, some even a bit risqué, and randomly picks one to generate a printed calendar every month that he pins to the wall. No one gives him any trouble for that... Well, just a bit: the boss asked for a copy of the directory and the guy slacked for weeks before making it -he hates the boss-

Some friends run a small web-dev company and have titty calendars on their kitchen-turned-server room. When they hired a couple of female designers they were free to hang some full-monty style firemen calendars themselves.

Of course something malicious and personal, like changing the wallpaper of someone else's computer to a porn pic or something like that would get you into trouble. Someone got a long suspension for that about when I started working here.

[Lunch of Kong]

That's a loophole around the IM policy that should be known to your compliance officer and closed immediately.

See, I did not know that. I guess that is why I'm not a compliance officer. Bye-bye meebo.

[Linoleum]

There's very little SarbOx can't ruin!

[forgeforsaken]

You can intercept SSL with a Proxy acting as a man in the middle. Bluecoat for instance supports this. So don't be thinking just because it's SSL the IT folks can't see it.

[Jojo]

As companies get tired of the dumb things people do on the internet and with their computers, you are going to see a lot more restrictions on what you can do with company property. I don't see workers winning many legal arguments about their 'right' to use company computers for their personal use, so it's unlikely that the climate will get better, just worse.

You're probably right, but I wonder if the problem will be eased as cellphones get smarter, and people are able to IM, browse the web etc on their cellphone (without using company wifi or resources of any kind).

[EvilIdler]

easier to just put up with it than say anything

I think they need to get creative. I'm not suggesting feces in the car tank or things like that, but if they do,
make sure it's not their own.

[Lorini]

You're probably right, but I wonder if the problem will be eased as cellphones get smarter, and people are able to IM, browse the web etc on their cellphone (without using company wifi or resources of any kind).

Exactly, I would think most workers will move to them to do a lot of their personal stuff. What happens where I work though is that people have cell phones that are owned by the government. Last I knew, they could use those cell phones for some personal use however, because it just doesn't make a lot of sense to carry two cell phones.

[Hanzii]

Same here, I had a big post written about that and decided not to go ahead, it's hard for me no to sound snarky and patronising about this.

The guy in front of me runs an ever growing collection of hi-res celebrity pics as screensaver, some even a bit risqué, and randomly picks one to generate a printed calendar every month that he pins to the wall. No one gives him any trouble for that... Well, just a bit: the boss asked for a copy of the directory and the guy slacked for weeks before making it -he hates the boss-

Some friends run a small web-dev company and have titty calendars on their kitchen-turned-server room. When they hired a couple of female designers they were free to hang some full-monty style firemen calendars themselves.

Of course something malicious and personal, like changing the wallpaper of someone else's computer to a porn pic or something like that would get you into trouble. Someone got a long suspension for that about when I started working here.


I actually think management would frown upon actual topless calendars and a too risque wallpaper if your screen was viewable... I haven't tried, because I don't consider that appropiate or mature for work.
But that would also be managements reasoning, not the fear of sexual harassment.

[Lorini]

Hanzii, there have been some big-time awards in sexual harassment in the US lately. Millions of dollars have been awarded to victims because of behavior that many people would not consider worth millions of dollars. My employer is scared stiff of having to pay out large amounts of monies because some idiot wants to have topless calendars around or watch his X-rated movie during company time. There is no benefit except being a 'nice guy' to an employer to allow their employees to do this type of thing, and a huge downside. I don't know how things are in Denmark, but the legal system here is nuts about this issue.

[Kraaze]

Hanzii, there have been some big-time awards in sexual harassment in the US lately. Millions of dollars have been awarded to victims because of behavior that many people would not consider worth millions of dollars. My employer is scared stiff of having to pay out large amounts of monies because some idiot wants to have topless calendars around or watch his X-rated movie during company time. There is no benefit except being a 'nice guy' to an employer to allow their employees to do this type of thing, and a huge downside. I don't know how things are in Denmark, but the legal system here is nuts about this issue.

Links to stories detailing these multimillion dollar outrageous judgements please.

[Udarnik]

I have one of very few Macs at my company, which often baffles our IT staff who are weaned on a total Microsoft stack, so we small band of Mac people tend to form our own computing cult and administer our own computers, which is nice.

The network traffic is not generally blocked or filtered except for Bittorrent, but looking at anything risqué would probably get you strung up by your coworkers long before the lawyers ever got to you. Europe this ain't.

[Ryan A]

Links to stories detailing these multimillion dollar outrageous judgements please.

It's really not too hard to find (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3046010)

[Funkula]

That's a case where (if we accept the plaintiff's story as true, which given the ruling in her favor seems appropriate) over-the-top verbal abuse was directed at this woman, calling her "bitch" and "ho" to her face, followed by pressure to have sex later. It's really not in the same class of harassment as having a topless calendar in the office, and I doubt it would result in a similar damage award.

[Brendan]

Our company is quite restrictive. Our contract states that email and internet usage is monitored, popular social networking sites and porn sites are blocked. Our company also analyses the traffic of the top ten users by bandwidth consumed every month and comes down pretty hard on those that repeatedly abuse company resources.

We have auditing software installed on all PC's that measure how much time we spend in each application as well as what we have installed at all times.

They really do have the potential to find out exactly what you are doing at all times on company equipment, but they only ever make an issue about it in cases where you are not performing up to scratch or abusing the system.

I don't really mind since I am being paid to do a job on company time, equipment and resources. They have a right to know when employees abuse these.

[shift6]

I agree with my employer's computer and internet policies, but our IT department is largely (and I mean very largely) made up of incompetents to monitor/manage it. I'm conflicted.

[Lorini]

That's a case where (if we accept the plaintiff's story as true, which given the ruling in her favor seems appropriate) over-the-top verbal abuse was directed at this woman, calling her "bitch" and "ho" to her face, followed by pressure to have sex later. It's really not in the same class of harassment as having a topless calendar in the office, and I doubt it would result in a similar damage award.

Sorry if I implied that topless bathing suits would result in a million dollar judgement. My specific words were 'large amounts of monies' and my point was that it's not worth the risk. My employer is not interested in paying out 1k, 10k, 100k or a million because of behavior that is over the line, which is all that I'm saying.

There was also a $19 million dollar judgment involving a woman harassing a man too, but I don't have the link handy. A lot of people thought that was way over the top, but when you go into court as the defendant, who knows what's going to happen. Which is why I'm just saying that it's probably not worth the risk.

[Hanzii]

They really do have the potential to find out exactly what you are doing at all times on company equipment, but they only ever make an issue about it in cases where you are not performing up to scratch or abusing the system.

I don't really mind since I am being paid to do a job on company time, equipment and resources. They have a right to know when employees abuse these.

Man, I couldn't disagree more and I'd quit in an instant.

[BostonBum0]

I actually think management would frown upon actual topless calendars and a too risque wallpaper if your screen was viewable... I haven't tried, because I don't consider that appropiate or mature for work.

It depends on the workplace. In our offices nude pictures would certainly get you in trouble, but in our fabrication shop there are posters of scantily clad women and even nude calendars.

[Jarmer]

Our company doesn't have a policy, but we JUST last week locked down the internet due to people not paying enough attention about where they're going. Someone went to some websites they weren't supposed to, and clicked the wrong link in an email and unleashed a virus onto the entire network. It was a mess.

PLUS that person wasn't backing their files up onto the network drives, so she lost everything.

[UncleSmoothie]

How do you handle the sexual harassment lawsuits when the downloaded porn creates a hostile work environment?

How do you handle the MPAA/RIAA when they come knocking at your door for the copyrighted content downloaded to your network?

Sorry for the late response, I forgot all about this thread.

Wholly Schmidt put it nicely; there's no articulated policy about what you can or cannot do online, but I imagine that the company is relying on the common sense of the people they've hired.

That said, this is the kind of job where I could be justified in going to some fairly dark corners of the internet. I showed 4chan to my CEO at a lunch meeting a few weeks ago.

[MyNameIsWill]

Don't do crazy stuff at work and it'll work out.

[Coca Cola Zero]

Someone went to some websites they weren't supposed to... she...

Nice!

[Brendan]

This is as appropriate a place to mention this as anyplace else. On Friday all development staff was instructed to fill in an online survey. Apparently we were helping a friend of the boss with her Human Resources Management Masters Thesis. The first part of the survey was about what we thought of our immediate superiors, the second was about our loyalty to our current company...

The link to the survey was emailed to us and each person got assigned a unique ID. The link was a standard http link so there was no secure connection and we had to do it through the company network.

Considering that we have had a shuffle of team leaders lately and staff are resigning in droves, the timing of this thesis sounds suspicious. I'm not even going to mention the ethical implications of forcing your staff to fill in a survey like this for a third party.)

[Equis]

This is as appropriate a place to mention this as anyplace else. On Friday all development staff was instructed to fill in an online survey. Apparently we were helping a friend of the boss with her Human Resources Management Masters Thesis. The first part of the survey was about what we thought of our immediate superiors, the second was about our loyalty to our current company...

The link to the survey was emailed to us and each person got assigned a unique ID. The link was a standard http link so there was no secure connection and we had to do it through the company network.

Considering that we have had a shuffle of team leaders lately and staff are resigning in droves, the timing of this thesis sounds suspicious. I'm not even going to mention the ethical implications of forcing your staff to fill in a survey like this for a third party.)

Your company sounds like hell to work for. What is it you do?

[Brendan]

Your company sounds like hell to work for. What is it you do?

I work for a software development house. It used to be an employee centric family friendly company which was great to work for until our new MD started throwing his weight around in his second year at the company.

I wanted to stick around until we leave the country in 2010 but I'll probably end up finding a new job sooner than that if they don't start reigning this shit back.

[Trey]

I don't think there's any specific policy. There's definitely no filtering/blocking. However I fully expect sniffing of everything, since we make network IDS/IPS appliances and I know we have some of our own devices in the IT closet.

[AndrewM]

Considering that we have had a shuffle of team leaders lately and staff are resigning in droves, the timing of this thesis sounds suspicious. I'm not even going to mention the ethical implications of forcing your staff to fill in a survey like this for a third party.)

Sounds like a good opportunity to express how much you love your bosses and your company!

[VegasRobb]

Ours is part of the policies and procedures. Every employee goes over it on hire and signs a document stating that they're aware of the policy and procedure. In practice, it's pretty much a common sense thing. I found out first hand when one of our IT techs used an image of my laptop as the template for all other laptops in my division. No expectation of privacy since that point in time. :)

Sadly there have been quite a few who have lost jobs for violating the policy. Surfing sites that they shouldn't, creating blogs with intricate detail of the workplace, using/displaying the company logo for non-work related stuff, etc.