Am I being monitored and if so, how can I determine?

[Richard Willis]

My company has not officially said it is monitoring the
computer usage of it's employees however, it did put out
a notice a couple years ago saying it had the right to
monitor employee computer usage. Can I determine for
sure it is being done on my computer and other co-
worker's computers here in our office. We are a remote
site on the East Coast and our mail server is on the West
Coast. Please advise.


Thank you,

 

[Malke]

My company has not officially said it is monitoring the
computer usage of it's employees however, it did put out
a notice a couple years ago saying it had the right to
monitor employee computer usage. Can I determine for
sure it is being done on my computer and other co-
worker's computers here in our office. We are a remote
site on the East Coast and our mail server is on the West
Coast. Please advise.

You cannot determine this definitively from your workstations; however,
you should proceed under the assumption that nothing you do on your
company computer is private. You should also remember that email itself
is not a private medium and sending an email is like sending a postcard
through snail mail.

Malke

 

[purplehaz]

Why do you need to know? If your doing nothing wrong, who cares if they
watch or not. And actually if your kicking butt why not let them look, then
they see how good you are.
Most of the time you can't tell, but it depends on what program they're
using to monitor with. Usually these types of programs are stealth. I run
one here and can watch any user at any time and no one knows. If your in a
remote location I would assume they are watching.

 

[dirk]

if you are one of the people who don't use work computers
for surfing every porn site and doing your private email
saying what a bunch of lazy twits you work for .no problem.
otherwise if ya want to be fired see if it is a keylogging
program and type 'the boss is a jerk and so's his kids. and
just backspace and delete.do this a bunch a bunch of times.
and see if you get noticed in your cube farm.

 

[CWatters]

In short, no you can't be sure it isn't being done as there are lots of ways
to do it.

Email usually travels around in plain text form so anyone with access to it
can read it (regardless of where you mail server is located). Email should
never be used for anything you wouldn't want in the public domain (eg credit
card numbers or letters that are critical of your boss etc).

If your internet access at work is through a company network then you should
assume that your web surfing habits CAN be monitored but that doesn't mean
they are. There is no reliable way to tell if monitoring is taking place.

Do you take your computer home with you at night or leave it in the office?

 

[Plato]

It's not an issue in the least. When your on their clock they have a
right to monitor your work.

 

[WWII]

Companies do have the right to monitor usage of their equipment. This also
includes non-business use if you use their equipment. Wait till the
computer auditors come round and audit your PC. It better be clean.