Re: asymmetric snooping

Posted by Roger Critchlow-2 on Sep 23, 2013; 8:49pm
URL: http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/asymmetric-snooping-tp7583857p7583858.html

Well, it wasn't just any normal employee audit.  This was the Superintendent of the school district and the school district Director of Athletics and Activities trading racist text messages.  Discussing how many african-american teachers were getting fired due to budget constraints.  And the school board was prepared to overlook the matter until someone leaked the transcripts to the district attorney's office.

It seems that if you hand your cell phone to someone to have them transfer everything on it onto a new phone, you really can't have any expectations about privacy.  

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On Mon, Sep 23, 2013 at 2:03 PM, glen <[hidden email]> wrote:

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.

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