[machiavell1]

The bottom line is that, if the new firm is like my old firm (where I got on very well with our IT team), they will place a bare bones monitoring policy in place (all incoming and outgoing BES work related emails, and a general log of any sites you visit but with no prohibitions generally on using the data as you wish). This is partly due to administrative burden but also partly due to local privacy laws - there is no blanket right in the UK to monitor everything, even if you tell employees you're going to do it. It needs to be proportionate etc etc.

Additionally, they can't access call logs from the provider (this has cropped up before and O2 wouldn't allow them any access to my account as I was paying the bills) although I have no idea what the score is about BES logging calls independently.

However, aside from that, it's useful to know the technical possibilities as well the likelihood, from a personal (I like to keep work and personal life relatively segregated) and also a professional standpoint (as I'm a litigator and these types of things can be evidentially useful). I will definitely be asking our new IT folk what the policies are (and the reality is).

[cde3879]

Originally Posted by Rugid Child

.... according to the information int he article, companies cannot retrieve any information through a third party regarding wireless communications. So text messages on your Blackberry are fine to send since the company will only see that you sent and received text messages but they cannot retrieve them.

I'm sorry, but that article (or your interpretation of it) is completely wrong. If I wanted to, within about 4 clicks I can enable text message logging on a user's BlackBerry without them being aware of it and it will dump the contents of every single text, sent and received, into a logfile on the BES.

That's not to say it's morally or legally right to do, but it is DEFINITELY possible.

[Dubdub]

I guess the bottom line is why are you trying to circumvent a company IT Policy? Those are there for a reason, and, right or wrong, it is still a company policy. As person in the legal profession, you should know better! Seems to me you are trying to hide something, especially with the comment about your previous company wanting to look at your call logs.

If you want to get your personal mail all the time, then get another, personal device for that or just take your personal device off of BES and do without your corporate email!.

[machiavell1]

Wirelessly posted

Right - no offence but you've got it completely wrong. I am not hiding anything nor am I trying to circumvent our IT policy, and you have highlighted the reason why I am keen to separate the legal/morally correct from the technically possible in this discussion - as it leads to opinions such as that which you've just expressed - namely that unless you've got something to hide, you don't really want or are entitled to privacy in communication in the workplace. These are arguments everyone has an opinion on, and then people start using their limited amchair knowledge of the law and what's permitted or not and it gets messy.

I was a senior litigator at my last law firm for 6 years. I have taken a promotion at a new law firm and I have nothing professionally to hide. The firms generally like you to be readily accessible, hence their request that I be available by blackberry - I prefer not to carry two devices as it's a pain. If I am liable for the bill, and the cost of the hardware (which I am), it's my device which they are adding their email to. To the extent I am operating on company business, I can expect only limited privacy - that's understood and accepted as it's communications during the course of my employment. To the extent it is outside of that, I can expect full privacy of my communications. If I bought a business suit for exclusive use for work, it wouldn't give my employers the right to check my pockets for notes to competitors.

Additionally, just because I don't want our IT staff even having the power to snoop on my personal calls, SMS, or other communications doesn't mean I am engaged in some inappropriate conduct. The flipside of that is the same argument that governments use when they ask for greater surveillance or investigatory powers or some all-encompassing DNA database - ie it would only concern a wrongdoer or someone with something to hide. That's clearly rubbish as personal information, even in well meaning but wrong/inept hands can leave people unjustifiably exposed (look at the CD databases of personal records lost by several uk agencies in the last year alone).

It just means that I have personal financial information, emails between me and my loved ones, and so on, that are hardly illegal but that I wouldn't want to share with just anyone. It's private life stuff.

As for the phone call logs - the reason that came up at my last workplace was that I asked my account manager to pull my itemised billing records so that I could check a number - she wasn't able to do that for me as in the UK it would constitute a breach of the DPA if the network shared that information with anyone other than the particular payor account holder, ie me. It was at my request, not theirs. The fact that you jumped to the conclusion that I must have been doing something wrong highlights precisely the mindset I have concerns about.

As a matter of likely company policy I can tell you the following - if they're anything like my last firm, they won't be logging or checking anything other than company emails as to do otherwise is questionably legal in England.

However, the fact/knowledge that some bored or vindictive IT guy who for some bizarre reason wanted details of my personal life could in theory check the contents of my texts and so on (illegally) allows me to be more circumspect about using that form of communication - it's actually me trying to be MORE work appropriate not less!

[takeshi]

Originally Posted by machiavell1

These are arguments everyone has an opinion on, and then people start using their limited amchair knowledge of the law and what's permitted or not and it gets messy.

Perhaps but you really can't play it "too safe" IMO. Personally, I keep all personal data off the BB connected to my employer's BES. My "personal cell" is a BB as well. I also keep all personal data off my work PC. I might connect a USB drive to my work PC or visit non-work web sites on my work PC from time to time but that's it. I guess you have to determine where you want to draw the line.

[machiavell1]

Wirelessly posted

I couldn't agree more. Which is why, with the very illuminating and helpful advice I've had here, I'm going to try to segregate my work and personal data more. Makes my life easier and my employer's too!