Scott Brickner writes:
The notion that, simply because you're wearing a uniform owned by your employer, you're subject to physical search at the employer's discretion is laughable. The difference between this and searching the computer on one's desk differ only in degree, IMO.
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. Your deskside workstation is just like your desk that it sits beside when it comes to employer/employee rights. While a prudent employer won't go through your desk unless it's required, they do have the right to do so. Many companies have stated policies as to when they can go through your desk; at places like IBM it is very restrictive as to when managers can go through your desk. This is merely smart business- giving people trust is the best way to make them responsible. All companies should also have written policies that state what parts of employee's computers/hard drives/home directories/email etc. is considered private, and under what circimstances management is allowed to look through those areas. I managed to sneak a policy like this into the computer security policy I wrote for a previous employer. Again, the policy should strictly limit what snooping through employee's files the company will do. Any company that goes through it's employee's files with less than sufficient justification is going to generate a lot of negative reputation, and fast. 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. If you want to keep something secret, put it on your own machine. -- Eric Murray ericm@lne.com ericm@motorcycle.com http://www.lne.com/ericm PGP keyid:E03F65E5 fingerprint:50 B0 A2 4C 7D 86 FC 03 92 E8 AC E6 7E 27 29 AF