Emails should be private!

[SillyOReilly]

OMG, she was having SEX!!!!! :0

This country is fucking pathetic, a bunch of nosey fucking losers that can't just mind their own business. And don't give me the garbage about "school resources" either. If she was using her connetion to plan a barbeque or buy tickets to a baseball game, it would not be an issue. How many in this thread comdemning her are posting from work using their companies' network?

We're not discussing whether she was emailing regarding bbq's or baseball games. Please stick to the subject before spouting off your irrational rant.

 

[OutHouse]

there is at my workplace, I work in the IT department and we never go anywhere near other people's inboxes unless there is an issue that require us to do so, and even then we don't read anything. it's the same with company equipment, what someone keeps on their company phone/iPad/laptop is none of my business and the day they return it I wipe it clean.

I just got a mass discovery request from my boss to look for keywords on 15 selected users mailboxes. If my query gets hits I will haveread the emails to weed out false positives

 

[Schfifty Five]

She looks like a man.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

She looks like a man.

Because she is

 

[13Gigatons]

Her real crime was being a 57 year old woman still interested in sex.

 

[joutlaw]

While using a work device and/or on a work network, absolutely no reason to expect privacy, IMO.

Exactly.

It is not "your" email if you are using a PC, Email client, and network paid by your employer.

 

[joutlaw]

I just got a mass discovery request from my boss to look for keywords on 15 selected users mailboxes. If my query gets hits I will haveread the emails to weed out false positives

All of our external mail is checked for certain keywords. If your email email is tagged, you get a notification to discard or send the message and it will be reviewed. Probably would have saved this woman's job if she had something similar.

 

[Exterous]

Is there really an expectation of privacy when using work email?

Oddly enough some people think there is. I don't think we'll find a lot of them on this forum as it is pretty tech savvy

there is at my workplace, I work in the IT department and we never go anywhere near other people's inboxes unless there is an issue that require us to do so, and even then we don't read anything. it's the same with company equipment, what someone keeps on their company phone/iPad/laptop is none of my business and the day they return it I wipe it clean.

While you may not be practicing invasive screening I am willing to bet that you can go into the majority of your users mail/computers without their permission (although it may require the permission from a higher power)

 

[Sonikku]

One less woman in the school system bleeding this country dry. As usual, their blatantly slutty sex fiend behavior proved her undoing.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

To clarify, I meant condemning what she did as wrong. I agree that what she did was really stupid.

Well... yeah, I'm a fan of monogamy. So what she did was wrong, imho.

But I don't think she should have been fired, unless they're going to go and fire everybody who's used school email accounts and/or computers for personal stuff of any kind. Only picking on the people who get caught doesn't seem fair to me. Never has.

Seems to me, she got fired because of OMGTEHSEXEH and they used the network TOS as a pretense. And it probably wasn't even the OMGTEHSEXEH, as much as it was the potential negative publicity.

In 41% of marriages, one or both partners admits to infidelity. There are 4,904 employees of the Des Moines Public Schools. Somebody should FOIA all of their district emails and see what else they can find. Maybe that'll learn 'em.

 

[Linflas]

Well... yeah, I'm a fan of monogamy. So what she did was wrong, imho.

But I don't think she should have been fired, unless they're going to go and fire everybody who's used school email accounts and/or computers for personal stuff of any kind. Only picking on the people who get caught doesn't seem fair to me. Never has.

Seems to me, she got fired because of OMGTEHSEXEH and they used the network TOS as a pretense. And it probably wasn't even the OMGTEHSEXEH, as much as it was the potential negative publicity.

In 41% of marriages, one or both partners admits to infidelity. There are 4,904 employees of the Des Moines Public Schools. Somebody should FOIA all of their district emails and see what else they can find. Maybe that'll learn 'em.

Many AUP's allow for incidental personal usage with stipulations. Typical language in an AUP:

Employees and students have no expectation of privacy in their use of school computers or internet services, nor does the use of <school system> computers or related venues create an open or limited forum under the First Amendment to the federal or state constitutions. The Division retains the right to monitor all computer and Internet activity by employees and students, and any information or communications on <school system> computer systems and network services may be intercepted, recorded, read, copied, and disclosed by and to authorized personnel for official purposes, including criminal investigations. Use of <school system> computers, networks, and Internet systems is a privilege, not a right, and can be withdrawn by the Division at any time.

A. Acceptable Use by Employees
Employees are to utilize the Division&#8217;s computers, networks, and Internet services for
school-related purposes and performance of job duties. Incidental personal use of school
computers is permitted as long as such use does not interfere with the employee&#8217;s job duties and
performance, with system operations, or other system users. &#8220;Incidental personal use&#8221; is defined
as use by an individual employee for occasional personal communications not occurring during
instructional time, which use is not otherwise prohibited by this regulation.

The following is a non-inclusive list of examples of unacceptable actions or activities:

3. Transmitting, downloading, storing, or printing files or messages (text, sound, still, or moving graphics, or any combination thereof) that are pornographic, or are obscene, as defined at <state code>, or that use language, sounds, or imagery which is lewd or patently offensive (including &#8220;sexually explicit visual materials&#8221; as defined at <state code>, or degrades others (the administration invokes its discretionary rights to determine suitability in particular circumstances);

 

[Broheim]

While you may not be practicing invasive screening I am willing to bet that you can go into the majority of your users mail/computers without their permission (although it may require the permission from a higher power)

I can theoretically force my way into whatever I want to, but we simply don't do it. The only thing we would care about is if an employee was sharing priviliged information with a competitor, and even then we'd probably go about it like like cops would when getting a search warrant.

if I have to log in with someone's user I have them make a temporary password so I don't know their real password.

 

[vi edit]

I think the fact that she was a school administrator certainly adds an escalation to this, legitmate or not. She's employed by an establishment dedicated to the profession of educating children, she's paid with taxpayer dollars, and beyond that, paid an assload of money from taxpayer dollars.

You'd have to think that a person in a) that position and b) that area of occupation would operate a little more discretion.

 

[sdifox]

No. I would bet that her school district's AUP includes something along the lines of it being prohibited to connect any device to the network without prior authorization and any such connection is subject to all provisions of the AUP.

your own smartphone would not be connecting to the school network...unless you told it to.

 

[Linflas]

your own smartphone would not be connecting to the school network...

Depends. First off I misread the guy's original post and acknowledged that in my post #40. That said when we rolled out wireless connectivity to our buildings it was mainly designed to support laptop carts. These carts typically contain 20-30 laptops to be used in the classrooms as needed. The same Cisco access points that connect these laptops with a secure SSID were also configured with the open "public" access SSID. Since the explosion of smartphones we have found that the access points are swamped with phantom connections since many people have their smartphones configured to connect to free wireless whenever it is available. What happens is the phone sees the open network and connects partially (it would require the user to actually open a browser and agree to the AUP to complete the connection) whenever they can. You can always choose to use your data plan connection and not be constrained or use the available wireless connection through the school system network and play by their rules.

 

[unokitty]

My perception is that the institutional email used by any public employee in Texas (including university employees) is subject to a freedom of information request.

Consequently, I am always surprised when someone in a position of authority with a good job throws it all away by using their work email in an oblique manner.

There is always a tension between privacy rights and the public right to know. But in the case of public institutional email this line has been consistently drawn for the public right to know.

Then again, given that a Houston District Attorney [1] was forced to resign over oblique emails... Perhaps, I shouldn't be surprised. (At least, these were found as part of an ediscovery in an unrelated (divorce) case.)

Uno

1. Some of those emails exposed his extramarital affair with his secretary as well as being found to be using government computers for campaigning and receiving and sending racist emails.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Depends. First off I misread the guy's original post and acknowledged that in my post #40. That said when we rolled out wireless connectivity to our buildings it was mainly designed to support laptop carts. These carts typically contain 20-30 laptops to be used in the classrooms as needed. The same Cisco access points that connect these laptops with a secure SSID were also configured with the open "public" access SSID. Since the explosion of smartphones we have found that the access points are swamped with phantom connections since many people have their smartphones configured to connect to free wireless whenever it is available. What happens is the phone sees the open network and connects partially (it would require the user to actually open a browser and agree to the AUP to complete the connection) whenever they can. You can always choose to use your data plan connection and not be constrained or use the available wireless connection through the school system network and play by their rules.

IT Professional's thought process: "Hey! Free Wifi! What's the catch? Better read the TOS."

Normal People thought process: "Hey! Free Wifi! Hey! Free Porn!"