Evil Genius

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20061201/D8LNRQB80.html

U.S. companies will need to keep track of all the e-mails, instant messages and other electronic documents generated by their employees thanks to new federal rules that go into effect Friday, legal experts say. The rules, approved by the Supreme Court in April, require companies and other entities involved in federal litigation to produce "electronically stored information" as part of the discovery process, when evidence is shared by both sides before a trial.

Cripes, time to remove 'logging' functionality from gAIM and turn on protocol encryption. I don't mind email, but IM == phone as far as I'm concerned.

psi29a wrote:http://apnews.myway.com/article/20061201/D8LNRQB80.html

U.S. companies will need to keep track of all the e-mails, instant messages and other electronic documents generated by their employees thanks to new federal rules that go into effect Friday, legal experts say. The rules, approved by the Supreme Court in April, require companies and other entities involved in federal litigation to produce "electronically stored information" as part of the discovery process, when evidence is shared by both sides before a trial.

Cripes, time to remove 'logging' functionality from gAIM and turn on protocol encryption. I don't mind email, but IM == phone as far as I'm concerned.

Except when IM is used for company business... just like a conference call. To be honest, I find it very hard to fault the policy, much as I might not like how restrictive it is. I would rather argue against it as a restriction of personal freedom standpoint than anything else. 4th Amendment, and all that.

when your on the clock your probably shouldnt be aiming anyway unless its for business

MrFelony wrote:when your on the clock your probably shouldnt be aiming anyway unless its for business

Ah, so by that logic, you also shouldn't take personal phone calls or email either?

I think that is a bit much. There is a balance, the objective while at your job is to work. However, it has always been acceptable to take private phone calls, read personal email, and do personal IM. Now, that being said... in bigger businesses, they lock down computers in such a way that it is difficult to use un-approved software. However, you still can make and recieve personal phone calls.

The logic is this, I work at a business to provide for my family. If I'm unable to communicate with them during business hours, then I'm probably not going to work there because my family needs me more than I need that job.

However, thanks to Sarbanes and Oxly, HIPPA, etc we need to start taking better account of what happens during business hours. So, we should have a blanket statement that ALL communication is recorded during business hours. Not just this, or that because it causes a slippery slope.

What of encrypted IM? What of encrypted email, what of PPTP? These are things that the company can record but can't really use as evidence of anything.

psi29a wrote:What of encrypted IM? What of encrypted email, what of PPTP? These are things that the company can record but can't really use as evidence of anything.

They can still track the address (IP/email) of the recipient, and from there decide if it was personal or business related. I mean, spending all day IMing the IP address of your home computer would kinda lead one to think that it wasn't for business. Granted there are ways around that, but the average person isn't going to know how to use them.