Hey, folks,
I'm always amused by these arguments, just because of the internal contradictions. Case in point: I'm the technology policy guy. The head lawyer and the head HR person were sitting with me one day. Catbert says "I'm going to ban ALL incidental use." Lawyer says, 'yeah, that's a good idea.' I just looked at them and said "you've both broken this proposed policy Today!" then I told them where that stuff would lead: lower productivity, won't be able to keep the best people, and worse: we spend millions of dollars on technology because we believe it will help. If we put in draconian policies, people will be reluctant to use it fully. And if they start seeing us as the tech police, they'll be less likely to report intellectual property theft, or data loss. We're not the Stasi, we're their colleagues. (of course, everyone who works here is by definition a 'knowledge worker'. It would be different on a shop floor.)
Not only that, but case law is catching up to the technology. The argument? They can't monitor your phone calls. So why should they be able to see what you're doing on a machine? The courts have been finding, over the last couple years, that there's a reasonable expectation of privacy, no matter what the policy (or the legislature) says. And the old ideas don't really apply. Think your employer *owns* your office space? Or that you *own* the space where your employees work? There was a case just last year: employee's in her office. Her girlfriend shows up. Stuff happens, *with the office door closed*. Employer, who has a hidden camera in there, fires employee, using the tape. She sues, and gets reinstated, because she had good reason to expect privacy when she closed the door. There are now several equivalent cases over computer use... even use like Frank's take home state owned laptop, including one with a city police chief. The court decided he should be given his job back.
What you cannot do, no matter what, is create a hostile workplace. You can't let employees surf to sites that would make other employees "uncomfortable." I'm saying that in as nice a way as possible, but there are some pretty incredible cases out there... it unbelievable how ugly people can get in relation to their co-workers.
All this to say that the law is changing, and employees may have more privacy rights than you're used to...
Thanks,
Bill