Eric Murray writes:
Another vaguely-related concept is that of tenants' rights to a degree of security in rental property.
Wrong model. You don't pay rent to your employer for your computer.
I don't think you read the rest of my note. I don't think it's completely clear that I don't pay rent to my employer for my computer.
Does this allow for employees keeping encrypted material on their company computer? I don't think so, or rather I think that it's in the company's rights to ask for the encryption keys under certain circimstances- employee leaving company, employee suing company, etc. If you've kept something damaging on your employers machine, you better delete it before the situation gets so bad that they'll be going through your files.
And still this reminds me of tenants property rights. (And I do agree the connection is rather thin, but work with me here.) An apartment manager can get in to an apartment for a variety of contractually set reasons. Maybe what all this means is that, at some point, employees will begin demanding explicit contracts w.r.t. computer system policies, just like for basic stuff like salaries & benefits. Indeed, I know of several cases where engineers being courted demanded and got perks like window offices or an extra few PTO days in their initial offer; why not a contract for what is and isn't "mine" on the network? (In that light, it'd probably develop that those without such a contract would be left on poor legal ground.) (And we'd better stop before Perry yells at us :-) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | Nobody's going to listen to you if you just | Mike McNally (m5@tivoli.com) | | stand there and flap your arms like a fish. | Tivoli Systems, Austin TX | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~