Beware the Internet Police..........a Utah example

[CMUNSON]

Yes, people should remember that they park their free speech and other 
constitutional rights at the door of their employers. Most businesses are truly 
feudal kingdoms that haven't caught up with the 20th Century. It's amazing that 
this doesn't occur to more people--you have all these freedoms including free 
speech during most of the day, but you have to suspend them at work.

What the employees in Utah should do is collectively organize and ask for more 
salary so they can have computers at home. Then they should lobby for a shorter 
work week so they can have more time to surf at home.

Of course, some people ;-) have always promoted workplace surfing as a form of 
employee sabotage. I predict that as more workplaces crack down on Internet 
surfing, which is a good outlet for much workplace boredom and frustration, that
employees will find other ways to screw around on the job.

Think about it!

Chuck0

______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: RE: Beware the Internet Police..........a Utah example
Author:  David Vaughan <dsvaughan at wentworth.region.library.on.ca> at Internet
Date:    1/29/98 11:28 AM


I don't see the privacy breach here.  This is about an employer 
exercising legitimate control over the activities of their employees.  I 
expect that accessing a phone sex line from the employer's phone system 
would also be an offense, as would sexually harassing a client or 
co-worker.  The employer own the network, the PC, and has standards that 
they expect their employees to adhere to when using them.  Any employees 
who want to visit sex sites or send smutty email messages would be quite 
free to do so on their home computer using their private Internet 
provider.  If the employer tried to police what they do on their own 
time on their computer, then there would be a case for privacy breach. 
Termination may be overkill as a punishment, but I have no problem with 
an employer trying to control how their facilities are used.
     
     
David
     
David S. Vaughan                        Phone: 905-546-4126 x36 
Wentworth Libraries                     Fax: 905-522-9083 
Hamilton, ON, Canada