Nosey coworkers

[Guest]

Hi, my question is this. My coworkers or 1 of them snoops on my p.c. I am the
administrater of the P.C. . I have made a password for my log in,always clear
history, cookies and so on yet he still knows when i log in when i log out
whom has messeged me on yahoo messenger and where I have been. I havnt
anything to hide but it realy bothers me and i believe in privacy. Can anyone
help me keep my buisness only my buisness?

 

[Shenan Stanley]

Hi, my question is this. My coworkers or 1 of them snoops on my p.c.
I am the administrater of the P.C. . I have made a password for my
log in,always clear history, cookies and so on yet he still knows
when i log in when i log out whom has messeged me on yahoo messenger
and where I have been. I havnt anything to hide but it realy bothers
me and i believe in privacy. Can anyone help me keep my buisness only
my buisness?

Are they an administrator as well?
Take away those rights.

 

[Guest]

Are they an administrator as well?
Take away those rights.

 

[NoNoBadDog!]

I would like to offer a couple of points here. You do not state what your
position is within the company, and whether you are the legal "owner" of the
computer. This is very important, because if the computer is not owned by
you, and it is owned by the company you work for, then the company and it's
designated personnel have every right to "snoop". If the machine belongs to
the company you work for, then you have no "business" that is solely your
"business" on this machine.
Several ruling by the Supreme Court have held that the company has every
right to monitor and verify employees' activities on company computers.
Just because you may have administrator rights on your local machine does
not mean that you have the right to treat the computer as your own.

Bobby

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: "NoNoBadDog!" <no_@spam_verizon.net>


| I would like to offer a couple of points here. You do not state what your
| position is within the company, and whether you are the legal "owner" of the
| computer. This is very important, because if the computer is not owned by
| you, and it is owned by the company you work for, then the company and it's
| designated personnel have every right to "snoop". If the machine belongs to
| the company you work for, then you have no "business" that is solely your
| "business" on this machine.
| Several ruling by the Supreme Court have held that the company has every
| right to monitor and verify employees' activities on company computers.
| Just because you may have administrator rights on your local machine does
| not mean that you have the right to treat the computer as your own.
|
| Bobby
|

To add to what Bobby has correctly stated, if you are part of a Domain then the Domain
Administrator may provide a Domain Group with administrative rights to the machine.

 

[Mike Hall \(MS-MVP\)]

Rena

A company computer should be used for company business only, regardless of
what you may think, and they have a right to enforce it..

 

[Juan]

Rena: What you need to do is make your user profile's folder private; go to
C:\Documents and Settings\user_folder\right clic\properties\Sharing\check on
"Make this folder private"..... If you whish to take things a bit further,
you can make your co-workers user accounts limited accounts. If the XP
version is Home Edition, they are allready limited users, but you could move
their accounts to the guests group to make them even more limited... that's
it if they use the computer for basic work and they don't need to use
programs and that's if you don't violate company policy. If you need more
advice be sure to ask.

Regards

 

[Juan]

Gentlemen; I believe you all are missing the point, what Rena says is that
co-workers are snooping on her private matters and the right to privacy is
everyone's legal right be it in the USA or anywhere else and that includes
the workplace unless company policy states otherwise.... and she did mention
she has nothing to hide, so it's not a matter of privacy but of harassment.
Co-workers do not have the right to look or try to look at her personal
stuff,... that,.. gentlemen, is against the law and you should not be taking
sides with the snoopers unless you believe that civil right in the US and
specially for women should be taken a notch back... She mentioned only
co-workers and not superiors... so this comment; ("A company computer should
be used for company business only, regardless of what you may think, and
they have a right to enforce it") has no place here, she did not mention any
superiors snooping in subordinate's matters, it's the other way arround,
she seems to be the superior in the department, her being the administrator
in the computer seems to prove it... the only thing she has against her is
that she seems to be the most computer illiterate in the department and
coworkers are taking advantage of that. So, it's up to you to help her not
to take sides in an ntifeministic maner. Sorry if i'm being blunt
gentlemen, but respect is what society needs more of and with your comments,
you are not helping to make things any better.

 

[Shenan Stanley]

Gentlemen; I believe you all are missing the point, what Rena says is
that co-workers are snooping on her private matters and the right to
privacy is everyone's legal right be it in the USA or anywhere else
and that includes the workplace unless company policy states
otherwise.... and she did mention she has nothing to hide, so it's
not a matter of privacy but of harassment. Co-workers do not have the
right to look or try to look at her personal stuff,... that,..
gentlemen, is against the law and you should not be taking sides with
the snoopers unless you believe that civil right in the US and
specially for women should be taken a notch back... She mentioned
only co-workers and not superiors... so this comment; ("A company
computer should be used for company business only, regardless of what
you may think, and they have a right to enforce it") has no place
here, she did not mention any superiors snooping in subordinate's
matters, it's the other way arround, she seems to be the superior in
the department, her being the administrator in the computer seems to
prove it... the only thing she has against her is that she seems to
be the most computer illiterate in the department and coworkers are
taking advantage of that. So, it's up to you to help her not to take
sides in an ntifeministic maner. Sorry if i'm being blunt
gentlemen, but respect is what society needs more of and with your
comments, you are not helping to make things any better.

You know - when people log into my work computers, they have to agree to a
legal notice that states, in short, that they may be watched/monitored,
etc.. It actually states that the should expect no privacy at any time.

It's mainly because of the number of people that use the systems and that
they are owned by the place of employment, not the individual. Incidental
use is allowed, however, no where is it guaranteed that the system admin
(once given a court order, etc) would not collect data on your usage and
give that to whomever requested. Yes - such a thing is avoided whenever
possible, but it does happen.

I notice that for whatever reason she has "administrative" rights and the
rest are limited users and a guest account. Unless they know what they are
doing, know her password (or another admin pasword), they are using FAT32 at
this company OR she misunderstood what she saw and thus reported about the
accounts - they may have a keylogger or something else... although if they
are truly limited accounts and they do not know administrative passwords -
then it would be some form of hardware..

Another thing is it could be a shared temporary internet files area..
Instead of one per user..

Whatever the case - unless she has full control of this system (and the
rights within her company policy to do certain things) then her only choice
is to go to the system administrator and/or her boss and report said
infractions to see what they can/will do. It's not her machine, it's a
company machine - she must allow her system admin to handle this.

If it is her system admin telling her this - yes - they can indeed see all
this and if they are harassing her - she needs to file a formal complaint.

This is more a case of office politics than computer security - because it
may very well be the case that they will do nothing or do not know how to do
anything for her.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Gentlemen; I believe you all are missing the point, what Rena says is that
co-workers are snooping on her private matters and the right to privacy is
everyone's legal right be it in the USA or anywhere else and that includes
the workplace unless company policy states otherwise....

Not so, at all. She has absolutely no expectation of privacy whilst
using her employer's property. Nothing on her employer's computer is a
"private matter."

and she did mention
she has nothing to hide, so it's not a matter of privacy but of harassment.

Irrelevant.


Co-workers do not have the right to look or try to look at her personal
stuff,...

True, just as she has no "right" to place any of her personal stuff on
her employer's computer.

that,.. gentlemen, is against the law

What law?

and you should not be taking
sides with the snoopers unless you believe that civil right in the US and
specially for women should be taken a notch back... She mentioned only
co-workers and not superiors...

No one is "taking sides with the snoopers;" they're merely pointing
out that her expectations are completely unrealistic. If she is being
harassed by a co-worker, she needs to take the issue up with her
supervisor or her employer's human Resources department. If she feels
her computer is not sufficiently secure, she needs to contact her
employer's IT department. Either way, this isn't a Windows issue, at all.

so this comment; ("A company computer should
be used for company business only, regardless of what you may think, and
they have a right to enforce it") has no place here,

On the contrary, the OP complained about co-workers (it doesn't matter
their relative position in the company) looking at *her* "...business."
She's been reminded, for her own sake, that she has no business of her
own on her employer's computer; everything on that computer belongs to
the employer, by law, regardless of its nature. If she is, indeed,
using her employer's computer for personnel "business," she can be
terminated for cause (stealing company property), making her ineligible
for unemployment benefits. Hence the warning.

she did not mention any
superiors snooping in subordinate's matters,

Irrelevant.

it's the other way arround,
she seems to be the superior in the department,

That's quite a leap; how did you ever come to that conclusion?

her being the administrator
in the computer seems to prove it...

Hardly. It only proves that her employer's "IT department" doesn't
have a clue. Had the OP the requisite knowledge to safely administer
her assigned computer, she wouldn't be having this problem in the first
place; she'd have secured the computer.

the only thing she has against her is
that she seems to be the most computer illiterate in the department

So who's the idiot that granted her administrative privileges to the
computer? He should certainly be fired.

and
coworkers are taking advantage of that. So, it's up to you to help her not
to take sides in an ntifeministic maner.

No one has been "anti-feminist." Where did you get that silly idea?
And it's not the purpose of this group to solve some unknown company's
personnel issues.

Sorry if i'm being blunt
gentlemen, but respect is what society needs more of and with your comments,
you are not helping to make things any better.

Nor are you, with your obvious complete lack of familiarity with the
realities of the work-place. The OP doesn't have a Windows problem; she
has a work-place problem that is far beyond the scope of this news group.



--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having
both at once. - RAH

 

[Star Fleet Admiral Q]

Other than the OP may be running WinXP, how does this relate to XP security,
except the OP has none. It is also evident Juan is completely uninformed on
work place policies and past court rulings in which employees use their
employer's equipment, whether it be a computer, copier, stapler, pen/pencil
or paper for personal use is concerned. All being used as such can be used
for just termination with cause (making one ineligible for unemployment
benefits), if said employer chooses to. It all belongs to the employer,
whether it be her personal business is irrelevant, and though many
employer's overlook some personal business as incidental, none will actually
approve of personal business in corporate policy as it becomes a liability.
To expound upon Rena's situation, we have no clue as to whether this
co-worker is a member of a domain admin group, thus to the average user,
would not show up as even a user of the system. Also, we don't know if the
system is secured, running FAT32 file system, or have had personal folders
redirected to a networked users folder for backup, again where a domain
admin would have access. Now depending on her position within the company
and the co-workers position in the company she may need to take matters up
with her supervisor, manager, director, IT or HR departments. Lastly, maybe
the co-worker is giving Rena a hint, maybe he/she knows the company is on to
her using the computer for personal use and he/she is trying to subtly warn
her before she is terminated, maybe the co-worker is the one that has been
requested to provide managers, supervisor, directors, or the HR and IT
departments with collaborating evidence to prove such personal use. Maybe
on the other hand she is doing legit company business requiring the utmost
in being secured from prying eyes, such as employee reviews, salary
increases/decreases, reprimands, etc, again here, her manager, supervisor,
director and IT security needs to be informed for corrective actions, both
to increase her PC security and to possibly start termination actions on
said co-worker, again as this co-worker could be circumventing IT security
in some manner to gain unauthorized access to personal data.
Rena, read, think and take the appropriate action(s), either you need to
cleanup your act or need to have someone else's act cleaned up.

--

Star Fleet Admiral Q @ your Service!

http://www.google.com
Google is your "Friend"

 

[Mike Hall \(MS-MVP\)]

Juan

The OP should NOT have Yahoo Messenger installed on her 'work' computer.. in
no way can this be part of a company platform..

The OP should NOT be accessing websites that are not work related..

The only business that should show up on the OP's computer is the business
of the company that employs her.. how is any of that 'private'?

There are NO rights to privacy regarding material on a company computer
other than the business of the company should NOT be disclosed to people
outside of the company.. you may be familiar with Non-Disclosure
Agreements..

Being the administrator of an XP computer implies nothing with regard to
employment status within a company..

The OP seems unsure as to who is accessing her computer, but seems to assume
that it is from the computers own keyboard/mouse.. it could well be that the
system administrator is monitoring her system remotely..

Re. respect.. an employee should show respect to the employer by NOT
conducting personal business on a company computer.. use of any program not
included in the company platform should be cleared with the system
administrator before it is loaded and run.. one of the reasons for this is
because companies do not want their network prejudiced by programs that have
free access in and out..

This newsgroup exists to help computers users who have valid problems with
the operation of Windows XP.. we can NOT offer advice on how to hide
'tracks' from people who may have a right to know what is 'going down'..

Is all of that 'blunt' enough for you?.. oops, I forgot to state that the
above applies to all genders of employee..


--
Mike Hall
MVP - Windows Shell/User