Is it legal for a boss to secretly install spyware?

Question

I work at a small office and I have been allowed to access my personal email (password protected) and also a sub account under the office email system (password protected) in which I receive email from my family and friends. I have also been allowed to store personal documents on my computer which are password protected (i.e my daughters resume or a letter to my doctor or even a letter of annoyance to my husband) and personal pictures. There is no "office policy" regarding privacy issues at the office. There was no restriction as to what I could use the computer for. I just found out that he is using a virtual screen shot program and/or a keylogger program to monitor the computers. If I knew that this was something that he would ever use I would never access my personal email and definitely would never store personal documents and pictures on the computer at work!! I am annoyed and bitter over this. I feel like my personal life has been violated. What do you think?

Answer 1

It may sound like they are violating your privacy, but this is a legal practice for employers. It's their property, and they can do what they want with it. Some companies will have some type of 'disclaimer' message before you log on to a company's computer.

If you want to prevent the keylogging/spying, I suggest installing a software firewall if you can. While you may technically not be allowed to do this on their machines, it's highly unlikely you will get fired over it.

For now, I suggest installing Sygate Personal Firewall (freeware). Sygate was recently bought by Symantec, and it seems Symantec just took away the free version. If you want the last release of the free version, you can still get it here:

http://www.filehippo.com/download_sygate_personal_firewall/

With this program, you can manually restrict certain system processes from accessing the Internet and/or LAN. If I were you I would restrict all processes that I do not recognize. If you accidentally restrict the wrong process and discover a system/network problem, you can always change the settings. If you are familiar with the popular ZoneAlarm software firewall, this one is just like it only much better and more secure.

You can also try getting a virus scanning program and spyware removal tool. The process will probably be detected as a virus and/or spyware. For a virus scanning software, you can try AVG free (Freeware and one of the best available). For a spyware removal program, I recommend spybot.

http://www.grisoft.com/doc/1
http://www.spybot.info/en/mirrors/index.html

Again, while you may not be allowed to do this, it is not likely you will get fired over this. If someone ever says anything, just play stupid and say you were just trying to get rid of spyware.

Answer 2

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Answer 3

It's a slippery slope at best but the bottom line is that it's a company computer provided for company business. I'm not a legal expert but I don't think there is a reasonable expectation of privacy when you are using an employers computer, especially in the workplace. I keep all my personal stuff on my portable hard drive and a jump drive. I do create PowerPoint presentations and other things as part of my job and I keep a copy of those on my portable hard drive. But I don't have any work related stuff on my laptop. I stopped using the internet on the company computer too when they installed tracking software. Of course they announced they were doing it first.
I just take my laptop to work now and use it for personal email. Several of us chipped in and bought a wireless router and everybody takes turns buying internet access by the week. Now everybody is happy.
It's a little different for me though because everyone here works two weeks on / two weeks off. We are at a remote oilfield on Alaska's North Slope so certain "exceptions" are allowed for family communication, etc. But I still will not use the company computer for personal stuff. I just won't give them anything to point a finger at. Although I used to use the daylights out of the company's multiple T1 connections :-)

Answer 4

I have never used a work computer to do any personal emailing or letter writing etc. You must understand that the boss owns the computer therefore anything you type on it is open season. Get a computer at home and use that instead.

Answer 5

Completely legal. They're not entitled to steal a password for email and break in to read everything in your email account held elsewhere, but anything that you've accessed by or placed on your computer is fair game. Including entire IM sessions.

Answer 6

If the employer is the actual owner of the computer, my guess is that he can do whatever he likes with it. Many, many employers monitor their computers these days, often without staff ever knowing about it.

The general rule is dont do personal things at work.

Answer 7

That depends on the laws where you live. If the boss just started doing this without telling you I am sure there is some sort of law against it.

Answer 8

it extremely is criminal, by way of fact the corporation owns the valuables and the kit. It seen to be the comparable element as a handy shop installation risk-free practices cameras - on occasion is it finished in basic terms as lots to observe the staff because it extremely is for risk-free practices. If he has put in webcams, i would not be shocked if he additionally put in a monitoring application on your pc to music/checklist what you're doing. they are much less costly and straightforward to place in devoid of you detecting them.

Answer 9

Ask yourself this: who owns the computer? I doubt that you bought it. The company that owns the computer can put any type of software on it that they choose, and they technically own any files stored therein, so they can look at it.

Answer 10

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