Re: Employer Probing Precedents?

[m5@dev.tivoli.com (Mike McNally)]

Eric Murray writes:
 > > Another vaguely-related concept is that of tenants' rights to a degree
 > > of security in rental property.
 > 
 > Wrong model.  You don't pay rent to your employer for your computer.

I don't think you read the rest of my note.  I don't think it's
completely clear that I don't pay rent to my employer for my computer.

 > Does this allow for employees keeping encrypted material on their
 > company computer?  I don't think so, or rather I think that it's in
 > the company's rights to ask for the encryption keys under certain
 > circimstances- employee leaving company, employee suing company, etc.
 > If you've kept something damaging on your employers machine, you better
 > delete it before the situation gets so bad that they'll be going through
 > your files.

And still this reminds me of tenants property rights.  (And I do agree
the connection is rather thin, but work with me here.)  An apartment
manager can get in to an apartment for a variety of contractually set
reasons.

Maybe what all this means is that, at some point, employees will begin
demanding explicit contracts w.r.t. computer system policies, just
like for basic stuff like salaries & benefits.  Indeed, I know of
several cases where engineers being courted demanded and got perks
like window offices or an extra few PTO days in their initial offer;
why not a contract for what is and isn't "mine" on the network?

(In that light, it'd probably develop that those without such a
contract would be left on poor legal ground.)

(And we'd better stop before Perry yells at us :-)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
| Nobody's going to listen to you if you just | Mike McNally (m5@tivoli.com) |
| stand there and flap your arms like a fish. | Tivoli Systems, Austin TX    |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~