Workplace Internet policies?

[cgallery]

About six months ago I discovered evidence that an employee of one of my clients was using the company's Internet connection to prostitute herself. She was using craigslist and IM to make "appointments."

I disabled her access to those services. So, she calls me about an hour later (from her cell, in the hallway) and (whispering) said: "I can't get IM to work. I need it to contact our clients, that is how I communicate with them."

I said something along the line of "I think there is a fundamental misunderstanding about what your job function is." She still didn't get it and said she had spoken with Steve (her boss) and he said it was fine to turn IM back on.

So I conference Steve in and explained what I had seen (I had a transcript) and what she was requesting. She insisted she only used IM to communicate with the company's clients. So I made some wise-crack remark like, "I guess that makes you a pimp, Steve."

She was let go about two weeks later.

I would have thought, "problem solved." Yet we're having more and more problems w/ employees at that outfit. I had a complaint today form an employee that couldn't get to a dating site. Good job, great benefits. Unbelievable.

I really feel bad for the straight shooters that just want to occasionally check craigslist for a swing set for their kids, or are looking for a car. Or like spending lunchtime to search eBay for collectibles. They're the ones that suffer due to these other employees abusing the Internet.

What kind of Internet access policies do you guys have at work?

[crokett]

No offensive sites - porn, etc. As far as I know using it for personal things is not specifically prohibited but you probably shouldn't abuse it.

A guy I worked with very briefly years ago was fired for browsing porn sites. He sued, claiming he had a medical condition (porn addiction). Another guy I worked with for a few years was busted and arrested after somebody walked by his desk and saw a teen porn site up. Why you would do that at work and in a cubicle is beyond me. His roommate stayed with me for a few weeks after that. The FBI was called in, it being teen porn and his apartment became a crime scene for a while after they discovered equipment to hack satellite cards, etc.

[430752]

We don't have a written policy, but its what you'd expect of a small office. No Porn, No Hate, No Offensive. So, we can ebay, facebook, etc. In theory, we could UTube too, but we have a single DSL line for 12 computers.

They used to not monitor, but I suspect they now do. Last guy that left downloaded all our data files off the server, not just his work product, and took them to his new job, which we found was our competitor (actually, a former worker that left to help found another). True, this data theft isn't internet access, but our office is lax about it all and likely had no idea except for self-policing amongst co-workers. I suspect we are not monitored in some benign form for all we do.

[jking]

We do have a written policy that covers "electronic media". Basically, covers e-mail, internet, & radio/music use. The basic jist is that the resources being used belong to the company & should be used as such. Personal e-mail & internet use is ok as long as it is restricted to personal time (breaks, lunch break, not on work time). We try to rely on the honor system, but, when people start abusing the system, the IT department starts blocking certain sites. Social networking sites (facebook, myspace, etc) are prohibited as well as youtube. We've had people get let go for violating the policy. Anything from surfing myspace for a date, to posting derogatory comments about the company on networking sites (from work computer no less).

It is sometimes amazing how little people think before they do some of these things.

[jackellis]

I've never had a problem, mostly because I've worked from home or for small companies. However, LOML used to work for IBM and their policies are based on the concept that office machines are for company business. Period.

One way to justify strict policies about personal use of computers at work is to argue that the IRS would have grounds for disallowing a tax deduction to the extent business assets are use for some purpose other than company business.

I don't know what the law says about a business's right to monitor and read materials that are generated on business equipment they own but to the extent it is not forbidden, employees should expect that it's being done.

[Alex Franke]

What's the Internet?

Mine's the same as crokett's -- nothing obviously offensive, and don't abuse it.

I admit I'd have a problem with a policy like, "We find porn in your browser cache and you're fired." (I've run across a few times on purely innocent browser searches -- a simple misspelling can take you to who knows where!) But I also think it can be pretty clear when someone's accidentally stumbling upon the bad stuff and someone's running an online brothel or the like...

[sparkeyjames]

In our small company we pretty much limit it to lunchtime surfing with no offensive material allowed. Then again there are less than 10 people in our company so anything out of normal would get noticed quickly.

[radhak]

Mine is a very large corporation, so no Youtube, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, or any other similar 'community' site. And of course the general filters to also block all explicit sites. Throws up a generic message - 'This site was blocked because of company policy; if you have an issue please talk to the admins'.

In fact, since I also get the same laptop home and work 'connected' (ie, VPN), I carry that restriction with me. I have other machines at home, but it's too much hassle for me to move my butt (That's the reason I don't get to see any of the Youtube listings any of you might post here)!

But I am only grateful that I do have access to the rest of the internet - email sites, news sites, all hobby sites, and of course BT3C; believe me, the 'net is big enough even without those handful of social networks!
I used to work in Citibank, and none of this was open; even the handful of news sites that were allowed (yahoo, msn), would earn a bent eyebrow and even a reprimand from an overzealous (or whipped) manager. No complaints now!

[twistsol]

As a consultant I've worked for many companies with varying policies from anything goes all the way to no internet access without a specific business need and only requested domains.

Generally, nothing offensive, and nothing high bandwidth e.g. radio, video etc. is the standard rule.

Worst offense I know of was an employee selling office equipment on eBay; he'd steal it as soon as it sold.

[Tom Slick]

The places I've worked, and now at school either do not have written or enforced policies. The last place I worked would monitor someone if they thought someone was just surfing but they'd write them up for not working.
It seems like if it's not a written policy then it's "don't get caught...twice." How do you enforce a word of mouth policy? How do you write up an "infraction" if there is no common standard? How does it get applied evenly and fairly to all employees? No written policy is begging for a disgruntled employee to take you to court.

[LinuxRandal]

I looked at some stuff a few years back, that would capture the websites visited, and the ip's of the visiting pc's and post them to a company webpage. At the bottom, it would display who/what, the ip was the address of.

I wish I knew where I found that, as public embarrasement from ones friends/coworkers, can be good deterent, without having to go further up the ladder. This works for the bosses as well.

Although, the ones creating/enforcing the policies/software, are the ones who can and do sometimes get away with all the stuff.
Kind of like all the stealing security stories I know about.

[cgallery]

I looked at some stuff a few years back, that would capture the websites visited, and the ip's of the visiting pc's and post them to a company webpage. At the bottom, it would display who/what, the ip was the address of.

That doesn't work so well if a woman has to use the computers at work to find a safe house for victims of spousal abuse. Or if a guy uses them to research pancreatic cancer treatment options. I've run into both of those and bunch more where I don't want to prevent them from using the office computers for such work, and I also don't want to risk disclosing what they're doing.

[germdoc]

I am all for blocking porn and even social networking sites. But our clinic firewall/filter is so restrictive it blocks pretty much all streaming media (can't listen to Rhapsody or Pandora at work), won't allow me to install an educational DVD that links to company website, and even screws up hotmail.

Too much IMO.

[BigguyZ]

I work for a pretty big company that also handles protected health information.

As such, we have no access to email sites, streaming video sites, like YouTube (though if a website isn't flagged, I can still go to sites with streaming video- the wood whisperer is one such site), and personal sites like Facebook, Myspace, and dating sites.

Also, they have flags for "tasteless and offensive", "Alcohol, tabacco, drugs", "Sexually explicit", "personals", "games", and "sports".

So, I think some make sense- but I for the life of me don't know why I can't visit a site talking about video games or sports.

PS- I forgot to mention that oddly enough, the general area of Craigslist is not blocked, but the sections that are specifically for personal ads ARE blocked. So I can safely browse for old handplanes (of which there are few to find), and not get a blocked page.

[Uncle Cracker]

I know some people that work for WDW, and can tell you that WDW has been collecting data about employees' online usage for some time now, and recently began using that data as a means to "thin the herd" and terminate selected employees for cause, thus not running afoul of union entanglements or labor laws.