They have to know and don't care?

[Karren H]

This week my old Blackberry's thumbwheel died and I wasn't able to clean anything off it.... Links and history and favorites... And I figured no one else would be able to see then either since it takes a thumbwheel click to access. So I hand my old phone off to the temecomm guy and he asks if I want anything off it... NO!


Well a couple hours later an IT guy shows up with my new Curve Titanium and says that it all ready and they tested it out and everything works... He shows me a few tricks like how to turn it on! Lol. And I get into the browser and there are all my favorites, short cuts...data on Facebook... Yahoo messenger... Flickr photos... History off my old phone... everything was there... From what I know of the BB Enetrprise server it tracks everything... And I've been using a BB here for 4+ years.... So they have to know about Karren... And have for a long time and no one appearently cares... So maybe I've been out.... And just didn't know it? Lol.

Personally I don't care who knows as long as it doesn't affect my livelyhood... Or my family..

Anyone else's corporate PC Police find you out?

[marie354]

I know what you mean. Once I came out, I eventually moved back to the place that I lived and worked for 25+ years and I've discovered loads of people that already had a good idea of what I was all about. (The dressing that is.)
I even talked to one of my old boss' and he is fully supportive to the point that he asked me if I wanted to come back to work for him. Wow!

[sallyjones]

i am currently working in germany and my computer was messing up. one of the guys that i work with said" let me see whats wrong with it." so hes looking for the answer and pulls up all my photos, websites, and favorites. whoa, i was like uhm. luckily he didnt say anything to me or anyone else. close call. the people at the phone placecan not by law hold anything on your phone against you, and besides who cares.

[WendyH]

Since I am in corporate IT, I know what is being monitored and how to cover my tracks. But if your IT is like our IT, no one ever looks at personal information or internet surfing habits unless specifically instructed to do so--there is too much to do to spend time looking through logs and personal files! Usually we're only asked to look through those things if management is looking for an excuse to get rid of someone or there has been a specific complaint against someone. Also, in my limited experience there's not an easy way to look at someone's stuff in Blackberry Enterprise Server.

[SuzanneBender]

Karren I never thought about my phone using an enterprise server through the University! My direct boss knows and a couple of co-workers and I thought that was it. Now I am worried the entire IT department knows based on your experience.

I agree with you as long as it doesn't hurt my family or my emplyoment I am not going to worry. I have a good friend in the HR department. I think it is time to head this off at the pass and let her know.

[Samantha43]

I'm very careful to keep all of that stuff off of my Blackberry and my company computer. I do all of Samantha's stuff on my personal computer. I don't think my company's PC police would be that friendly.

Like you said Karen, I don't want it to affect my livelyhood or family.

[Kimmy55]

I do most of my e-mailing,shopping,banking,bill paying,chatting,etc,etc on my work computer and have for over 11 yrs.Have never heard a word about it being a problem

[tinalynn]

Nobody is tracking anyone's surfing habits unless there has been some complaints. Now, if you're downloading gobs of data at work (or through your VPN access while at home), then somebody may notice the large amount of traffic and look at where its coming from. But that's it, and the result would probably be a firewall block of the site as its probably not work related. That is how most people get caught downloading porn - downloading so much that it eats up corporate bandwidth. Those network stats do get watched because people complain about slow access. For common surfing, nobody is watching where you go. Though some companies may track the number of hits to a specific site, they rarely trace it back to your laptop (need a reason to do so).

When at home on a company PC, you're going through your own ISP - not the corporate one (unless VPN'd in, then your on the corp server, but not necessarily the ISP). Now Crapberries (& other such devices)... Those are going through the corporate services wherever you are.

[PretzelGirl]

Anyone else's corporate PC Police find you out?

I am a little surprised that you didn't expect this. You seem somewhat out at work, so I figured you just didn't care.

My company does monitor things. I know of people that were called to be told they were in violation of company policy for personal internet usage while they were doing it. So someone is at least occassionially monitoring the corporate firewall.

My rule. Work and CD activities don't mix!

[Persephone]

If an employer owns the equipment or pays for the connection service then it belongs to them.

According to privacyrights.org:

In most cases, no. If an electronic mail (e-mail) system is used at a company, the employer owns it and is allowed to review its contents. Messages sent within the company as well as those that are sent from your terminal to another company or from another company to you can be subject to monitoring by your employer. This includes web-based email accounts such as Yahoo and Hotmail as well as instant messages. The same holds true for voice mail systems. In general, employees should not assume that these activities are not being monitored and are private. Several workplace privacy court cases have been decided in the employer's favor. See for example:

* Bourke v. Nissan, www.loundy.com/CASES/Bourke_v_Nissan.html
* Smyth v. Pillsbury, www.loundy.com/CASES/Smyth_v_Pillsbury.html
* Shoars v. Epson, http://fac-staff.seattleu.edu/mchon/...es/shoars.html

In addition, in the U.S., The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 requires publicly traded companies and their CPA and attorney firms to retain certain electronic information, including email, for up to seven years. Many other countries probably have similar laws and regulations.

[Karren H]

I am a little surprised that you didn't expect this. You seem somewhat out at work, so I figured you just didn't care.

My company does monitor things. I know of people that were called to be told they were in violation of company policy for personal internet usage while they were doing it. So someone is at least occassionially monitoring the corporate firewall.

My rule. Work and CD activities don't mix!

I don't have that rule... I have crossdressed more at work than at home. I think of it as an efficiency project! Out PC firewall is pretty tight and nothing TG related passes through the filters though I have tested it enough..

[Sally2005]

The way I look at it...anything you do at work or on work computers is the companies knowledge so I think about what I need to keep private and do that on my personal computer. You have to consider the worst case, not the best case. The worst case is someone doesn't like you, wants to discredit you for their own gain or someone makes a false complaint. You want anyone who looks to find absolutely nothing... which makes for a hard case against you. If someone makes a false claim and all of a sudden something unusual, like CDing which is not generally well understood (nor protected by law) comes up and a decision you may not like happens... then you are forced to fight for what you deserve. It is better to take an offensive position.

[Kate Simmons]

Of course they know silly. The reason they don't say anything is that the computer jockies who service and monitor the stuff are probably fans of yours and want to see what comes next. Little do most of us know what happens in connection with us and our CD life behind closed doors.

[DiannaRose]

I think most companies acknowledge the fact that there will always be some level of personal activity that employees engage in. As long as someone's not spending hours at a time or scanning porn or trying to score drugs, there's a little give there.

That said, I have noticed an occasional site that I'd pop onto once in a while is later blocked by our firewalls, so clearly they do take note of who goes where. I tend to limit things like shopping on-line to break times anyway, and do a lot more on my phone now that I have web access there. If our IT folks have noticed any CD patterns, they're being cool about it. (But our IT folks are cool anyway.)

They know it happens. Just as long as it's not causing a drain on productivity or resources, most companies will be reasonable. Shucks, we're even allowed access to FaceBook because the boss set up an account for the company there.

[Frédérique]

I've been using a BB here for 4+ years.... So they have to know about Karren... And have for a long time and no one appearently cares... So maybe I've been out.... And just didn't know it? Anyone else's corporate PC Police find you out?

[SIZE="2"]I haven’t been in a blackberry patch for years – I get runs in my stockings…
It’s hard for the corporate PC Police to get me, since I don’t give them a chance to know me...
Help! I’ve fallen through the cracks and can’t get up! [/SIZE]

[melissacd]

Is it possible for them to find out...absolutely. Is it practical...generally there is too much traffic and IT has so many other activities and responsibilities that there is a very small chance that they would ever know without being given a reason to look.

Notwithstanding that, it is always more prudent to avoid doing these things on company equipment, in or out of the office, if you are not out and do not want to be outed then why take the risk. On the other hand, if you do not care that you are discovered then so long as you restrict such activities to times that you would be allowed to do personal things (breaks, lunch, after business hours) then it does not matter.

[minalost]

I'm lucky in that I have my own laptop and my own internet conection in my office. My company computer in on a national network. I don't put ANYTHING on that one that I don't want them to see. It seams unlikely that they are spying on me, or anyone else in the network, but you never know.

[AllieSF]

I was on an international assignment over a year ago and was given a company Blackberry to use. Since I keep my personal stuff separate (except for checking my hotmail and yahoo email accounts) separate from work, I never use the company computer to visit this website. I tried to do that from the Balckberry and was prevented by the company'ss inhouse system. So yes, they can see where you go and they probably have automatic filters to prevent and discourage unapproved web surfing through the company system.

[JamieOH]

without giving too much detail, as it's very boring, and in a search engine, could be popped up and out me.. Most of the network security that I have dealt with, has been mostly based on keywords and phrases that were set up by some group of software engineers, and then edited by the local IT gurus to allow certain phrases or words, but not allow others on top of what was already there.. THEN anything in those massively large random data statements is entered in, and FLAG.. Now, some places, they do a report of all the flags for a certain time frame, and go through them to see if any of the flags are violations of policy or not. Otherwise, they let it go.. So, yeah, if you do ANY online activity at work related to CD or TG issues, guess what? THEY KNOW.. Unless your in a smaller company who doesnt monitor it as much... then they only get an email, or something if you get x number of flags, or they loosen the strings allot so as not to be bothered.. But even then, if they have network monitoring set up, THEY KNOW. It doesnt matter to most, as it isnt something that is being a detriment to the company.. and the IT guys generally dont care..

As for Karren's situation, the Blackberry, as I read it wasnt taken to the carrier's store, it was handled by the COMPANY IT department.. and THEY are the ones that set her up with another phone.. SO, yeah, they went through it to make sure everything transferred, and yeah, THEY know... I am sure they think your as hot as we do! haha

[kristinacd55]

I know Google keeps everything so I'm in trouble unless this "incognito" on Google Chrome actually doesn't store anything. I doubt it!

[Tanya83]

I'm pretty sure you'd win a discrimination or defamation lawsuit if your dressing habits lead to a termination.

[AmandaM]

Oh God, are you out! Oh well, had to happen princess!

[Marcie4you]

I too am in corporate IT and computer forensics. If you delete EVERYTHING, (unless you do a DOD wipe, which takes considerable time) I can retrieve Everything that was on your PC. That's why you hear of police seizing pcs. While I agree, we don't "witch hunt" (takes too much time) it's best to keep personal things OFF the company owned equipment, and make sure anything stored on your own pc can't be deemed "illegal"! Just a word to the wise......

Oh, btw, I am NOT law enforcement!

[donnalee]

Blackberries are set up to run off of Microsoft Exchange in most companies. All of your email and contacts live on the server, not on your device or computer, so they ALREADY have your info; that's why it shows up on your new device.

[Claire Cook]

I work for the feds; it is their desktop, their Blackberry and their laptop. Certainly the desktop and the Blackberry are monitored. (Once someone in our branch was outed for looking at porn sites.) In any case, I never use these computers for personal stuff except to check news, weather, etc.

Anyway -- Karren, if your IT folks did look at your conversations here, I hope they enjoyed them as much as we do!