Sunil Masand

CS 312

Professor Carol Wolf

“They’re Watching You”

Since the rise of the internet and email in the corporate world companies have kept a close eye on their employees. So close of eye that by the year 2000 Sarah Boehle (who wrote “They’re Watching You…” – article we were assigned) knew that when it came to computers and privacy at the workplace there will soon be none. Many companies were at the time giving very close attention to what workers were doing on their computers. This included everything from files they were making and saving on their computers to (most importantly) the emails their workers were sending and receiving.

One might wonder why they were giving so much attention to what could be arguably a seemingly small thing. They – however – have many practical and sound reasons for giving so much attention. Mrs. Boehle brought out that these include the loss of productivity that employees might have if they were on the internet or sending emails unchecked. Other reasons include corporate espionage that can and has taken place, decrease of overall bandwidth – or the related problem of paying way too much because of using too much bandwidth.

One important reason that has come up and has the government backing companies on the measures they’ve taken with computers is the legal liability that employees can create. If an employee – for example – receives a dirty joke through their email and gets a laugh that would be fine for the corporation. If that employee then turns and delivers that email to other coworkers the company can have a problem. The reason for this is because if a company worker reads this email and finds it offensive or degrading they can not only sue the person that sent it to them but also the company since their computers gave him access to receiving and sending the mail.

It seems that as far as privacy is concerned, there is none when it comes to the computers at one’s workplace. People should be wise to remember that, since it is something that could easily be forgotten.

Citations

1. Boehe, Sarah.. "They’re Watching You." Traning Magazine. 2000. 4 February.

2006

< http://csunx2.bsc.edu/bmyers/privacycases.doc>.