>Microsoft's Ballmer In Firing Line As Gates Departs

InformationWeek Daily - Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Company Argues For Right To Read Ex-Employee's E-Mail A finance company is arguing in court that it had a right to read an ex-employee's personal e-mail. Sounds crazy, right? And yet, in this world where we carry BlackBerrys to access work e-mail from home, and handle personal business over the company Internet connection, it takes a crazy person to figure out where personal life ends and work begins. The New York Times has the story. Structured Settlement Investments fired Scott Sidell, who formerly headed the company. He filed an arbitration claim over his lost job and, in a lawsuit filed last month, he says that executives at Structured Settlement read e-mail messages that he exchanged over his Yahoo account with attorneys about strategies for winning the arbitration claim. How was it possible for Structured Settlements to access Sidell's personal Yahoo account? Sidell said in court papers that he may have left his office computer logged in to Yahoo Mail. But the company says Sidell returned to the office after he was fired and used another employee's computer. Years ago, I wrote a column arguing that companies ought not to read employees' e-mail. At least one IT manager scolded me for being childish. What you do on the company's e-mail system, using the company computers, and the company's network, is the company business, he said. My logical brain says that's right. You can certainly make a similar argument here: Sidell used a company-owned computer to access his mail. He left that computer logged into his account. Therefore the company had a right to access the e-mail on that account. QED. Sidell doesn't have a case. And yet, intuitively, the situation seems deeply unfair. It wasn't the company's e-mail -- it was Sidell's personal account. He no longer worked for them. The company eavesdropped on communications between a former employee and the employee's attorney -- discussing a case against the employer. How can that be right? How much privacy should an employee expect when using an employer's communications resources? Read the rest of my blog and leave a comment here. Mitch Wagner [email protected] www.informationweek.com
"There is a secret pride in every human heart that revolts at tyranny." -- William Hazlitt, British literary critic and philosopher
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I consider myself to be a heavy music consumer. I purchase between two and five CDs worth of music each month. Even though I can download music directly to my iPhone via the iTunes Music Store, I still don't go for mobile music. What's preventing me (and everyone else) from doing so, and will Verizon Wireless's new deal with Rhapsody and Real make a real difference? NetGear's WGR614L: (Soon To Be) My Open Router As soon as my next paycheck comes in, I'm seriously thinking about picking up Netgear's new WGR614L wired/wireless-G router. It's yet another of the small but growing pool of hardware devices (along with some of Netgear's own earlier routers) designed with the hacker in mind. Company Argues For Right To Read Ex-Employee's E-Mail A finance company is arguing in court that it had a right to read an ex-employee's personal e-mail. Sounds crazy, right? And yet, in this world where we carry BlackBerrys to access work e-mail from home, and handle personal business over the company Internet connection, it takes a crazy person to figure out where personal life ends and work begins. Real-World SOA: Definition, Implementation and Use of SOA with CentraSite Web services are having a dramatic impact on improving enterprise architecture and application development practices. This paper highlights three sample case studies illustrating how Fujitsu's CentraSite delivers SOA solutions. Forrester Consulting: Unified Communications Delivers Global Benefits This Forrester Consulting study shows how Unified Communications (UC) makes it simpler to contact others over any device in any location, enhancing business agility, cutting costs, and boosting employee productivity. Forrester finds that UC is already delivering major savings for organizations around the world in retail banking, manufacturing and education. Download the full report for free. 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Read the full report for free from InternetEvolution.com Featured Jobs: Toshiba Medical Research Institute seeking Analog ASIC Specialist in Vernon Hills, IL UC Berkeley seeking Remedy Administrator/Developer in Berkeley, CA Lowe's seeking DC Systems Administrator I in Cheyenne, WY Protingent Staffing seeking UI Designer in Costa Mesa, CA Graduate School of Library and Info Sci seeking Asst Dean for Infrastructure in Champaign, IL For more great jobs, career-related news, features and services, please visit our Career Center. Try InformationWeek's RSS Feed Discover all InformationWeek's sites and newsletters Recommend This Newsletter To A Friend Do you have friends or colleagues who might enjoy this newsletter? Please forward it to them and point out the subscription page. Not a current InformationWeek magazine subscriber? Apply now for your FREE subscription to InformationWeek. 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