Okay, so I know it's legal if your employer plays big brother over your internet access at work. From what I understand, all the accounts at the place I work access the web through the same IP address. All web activity by any employee is logged and tracked by the IT department. What if you're checking your private email on a lunch break? I'm not sure if they can see the actual pages or if they're just seeing the url's visited. Can someone in IT be reading my email or looking at my bank account while I'm logged in at work? Anyway, my main question is; Does anyone know if your employer has the legal right to view the private websites you visit, ex. email, bank accounts, etc? I would think this would be a security risk in itself.
Check your company's computer usage policy. Chances are you are not allowed to even look at websites even on your lunch break.
I believe stuff like your email, bank accounts, shopping is usually encrypted by SSL. However, stuff like your MSN messages is unencrypted therefore its visible.
You really believe you have any realistic expectation of online privacy if you're using someone else's resources to do your online thingies?
As far as I know, there shouldn't be any problem with them going back and vieiwing pages you have visited... As login details aren't normally shown in URLs and as someone else said, the information should be encrypted if it is necessary to keep it secure. Of course, if you are very worried about this, you could just ask someone in your IT department regarding their privacy policy...
Depending on what logging they are doing then they may or may not be able to see your "personal" details. At the end of the day, if you are concerned about it dont use your work PC for personal use.
Well, it depends what country you're in. If you're in the EU you may have a right to privacy even when using work resources for personal use, provided you haven't waived that right as part of your contract. I think a lot of companies, especially the bigger ones, do mention that your Internet access will be monitored. http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/pos...ernet-usage-from-work-is-maybe-protected.html From the article:
Yeah the way most of these laws are written, it is best to assume that virtually anything can be monitored by your boss....it may not always be the case but because of the new and vague nature of the net, in practice it usually is...It is best to have your own internet source (cell phone, etc) at work if you have serious privacy issues. Also consider the local cybercafe during your lunch break...at least you will be totally comfortable there...
i think the most important stuff like your bank account information is probably encrypted but If you were my employee I wouldn't want you to be looking at your personal stuff while I was paying you!
Yes, in short the IT department can have access to your bank account and private email if they are monitoring your internet usage (I work in IT). But, it also depends on what type of monitoring they are doing that will determine how much information they can see. I used to work at a place that would record all of the users movements, just like watching a movie of someone's desktop, and play it back later to see what you did. Showed every movement the user made: what windows they opened, what sites they visited, everything.... Bottom line: if you know you are being monitored and don't want them to see your personal info, don't visit those sites at work!
Neither would I. You missed out the possibly more relevant portion of that article, turiel: Generally speaking, legal disputes are fact-intensive, and judges aren't always required to adopt a similar decision of a similar case.