Re: Monitoring User!!

From: Gary Smith (bitbucket_at_example.com)
Date: 01/08/05 

Date: Fri, 07 Jan 2005 19:44:39 -0800

Steve Parry [MVP] <k100rs_1990@nospam.hotmail.com> wrote:
> Gary Smith fumbled, fiddled and fingered:

>> Neil Shaw <neil@nshaw.co.uk> wrote:
>>> Incidentally, what are the legal implications of this sort of thing?
>>> I suspect human rights will come into it somewhere, so be careful.
>>
>> The company owns the computer. The company sets the policy and has
>> the legal right to monitor all activity and read all files and
>> communications. The company has no legal obligation to inform the
>> employee of such monitoring, but it's generally considered ethical to
>> do so. The employee has no right to privacy, and if the company has
>> published an acceptable use policy, the employee has no defense if
>> that policy is violated.

> Our company is Finnish company

> Apparently Finnish law states that any and all email sent to an employee
> is private and cannot be viewed by anyone else with the express persion
> of the recipient.

> Although we are in the UK we have to adhere to Finnish law as all the
> mail routes via their Domino servers to ours.

> Don't make the mistake of thinking any company can work indendantly of
> the law.

I took the original poster's comments to mean that his was a US company,
in which case my remarks apply. I know that the privacy laws in some
European countries are much more stringent.

Any company *can* work independently of the law -- until it gets caught.
If it has sufficient funds and good enough laywers, it can pretty much
operate without regard to the law indefinitely.

Me, cynical? Nah. 

-- 
Gary L. Smith                gls432@yahoo.com
Columbus, Ohio

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