Freedom, brought to you by a demon bitch.
Privacy is a fleeting concept - especially in the world of ultra-gacked fones, and the every watching eye of the big house, along with the slick minds of your neighborhood IT department. I've been following (I wish closer) the case that is now in the Supreme Court's hands - which in a nutshell addresses privacy in relation to a company purchased laptop, or cell phone. The question is, if you are not emailing, instead texting/ facebooking/ myspacing/ livejournaling/ etc - is it legal or just for your employer to spy on communications sent from a device which they purchased for you or is used by you on their network? Can you be terminated for a text? A message sent on FB? Is it just for them to look at your friends, etc on social networking sites, and subsequently make work related decisions concerning your fate based on what they see - minus context?
In a word? Yes. The Supreme Court is expected to rule in favor of big business. So, ultimately it will be legal for them to look at your text messages, status updates, blogs, etc. And I don't know about y'all, but I am sure at some point, things that I like to talk about, or have talked about, violate some kind of corporate cookie-cutter, boiler-plate policy.
So, reluctantly, because I still cling on to my privacy with white knuckled-clenched fists, I will reluctantly buy a personal cell phone asap tomorrow and will kiss using my BBerry and the free service for anything other than vanilla work-related bleh. Its tricky, you know? You get a corporate job, and in your offer letter, they talk about "benefits" (one of which was a bb) you naively get rid of your own phone, and start using it (minus work email - I'm not that stupid) as a personal way of communicating with friends, even co-workers. Well, welcome to the new world order - because even if you are chatting away on your own time, all of it can be monitored and accountable.
Scary.
So, I refuse to lose my job because I had a mustache night, or have a friend on myspace that might be deemed inappropriate by someone hundreds of miles away, sitting in a room, with a mouse and a bad day.
:(
In a word? Yes. The Supreme Court is expected to rule in favor of big business. So, ultimately it will be legal for them to look at your text messages, status updates, blogs, etc. And I don't know about y'all, but I am sure at some point, things that I like to talk about, or have talked about, violate some kind of corporate cookie-cutter, boiler-plate policy.
So, reluctantly, because I still cling on to my privacy with white knuckled-clenched fists, I will reluctantly buy a personal cell phone asap tomorrow and will kiss using my BBerry and the free service for anything other than vanilla work-related bleh. Its tricky, you know? You get a corporate job, and in your offer letter, they talk about "benefits" (one of which was a bb) you naively get rid of your own phone, and start using it (minus work email - I'm not that stupid) as a personal way of communicating with friends, even co-workers. Well, welcome to the new world order - because even if you are chatting away on your own time, all of it can be monitored and accountable.
Scary.
So, I refuse to lose my job because I had a mustache night, or have a friend on myspace that might be deemed inappropriate by someone hundreds of miles away, sitting in a room, with a mouse and a bad day.
:(