asymmetric snooping

Posted by glen ropella on Sep 23, 2013; 8:03pm
URL: http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/asymmetric-snooping-tp7583857.html


This situation:

CASD in crisis after racially-charged text messages surface
http://www.dailylocal.com/social-affairs/20130923/casd-in-crisis-after-racially-charged-text-messages-surface

leaves the most important part of the story out.

"On Aug. 15, a member of the district’s IT department discovered the text messages on Donato’s phone while copying data to a newly-purchased device."

Why were they reading the txt messages?  Was it part of a normal "audit" of employee phone usage?  Was it a manual copy process?  Or perhaps a manual verification of an automated process?

I think my last 2 employee agreements (1999 and 2001) included clauses claiming that anything I do with company property was owned by (and, hence, accessible to) the company. So, it would be reasonable to expect them to _have_ access to txt message and e-mails.  But, to the best of my knowledge, they never actually read those, much less listened in or recorded my phone calls.  (Of course, I could be wrong.)

I'd think the IT person in this case must have had some reason to read those txt messages in the first place.  If not, then this is _categorically_ the same as a (warrantless) abuse of the NSA's surveillance task.  And if they did have a reason, then it's categorically the same as a (warranted) use of surveillance.

Even if you disagree about the categories, it still serves as a useful case because the Evil Doers(TM) were outed by the surveillance.

--
⇒⇐ glen e. p. ropella
Let's get together and cry
 

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