Every once in a while, something happens that causes me to lose a bit more of my privacy...
This week, my employer changed to a "Google Managed Account" for our mail server, calendar and various other features. This was considered a "mandatory" change and with email there really isn't much choice.
As soon as a user signs on for the first time, he needs to agree to the terms which basically say that the administrator (i.e. employer) will have access to essentially everything that runs through that browser when you are signed in... so email, (fair enough, since it's work) but also contacts, calendar, browsing history, bookmarks etc. It took me about .25 seconds to object to this. I work from home and into the evenings frequently so I am very likely answering client emails and playing on Terb at the same time... Something that is none of my employers business.
I don't think most browsers allow you to be signed in to multiple accounts at the same time, so I am now running two browsers... Chrome for work and Firefox for everything else.
Over the next couple of days, I will also be separating my contacts into two separate files (work and otherwise) and I refuse to share my calendar. (I work on straight commission and how I choose to spend my time is nobody's business but mine.) My department head has already commented that my calendar is barren (we were obliged to share them for scheduling meetings, vacations etc.) but I'll be damned if I am sharing my "real" calendar. I told him he should feel free to add meetings and so on to it, and he responded that he wouldn't know when I was free... I told him I would let him know.
I know that a lot of you in big companies are used to this, but I'm not. And it bugs me. While I trust the owner of this company, he recently hired a new CEO and that isn't the case with him... I used to own my own business but sold them to this company as a pre-retirement move.
I see this as one more step towards employers being in our personal business.
Along the same lines, my son was interviewing for a job in Vancouver three weeks ago, and was asked for his "Facebook Name". He asked how that was relevant to him performing the duties he was being considered for, and was promptly advised that the interview was over. That's just wrong. I suggested he create a new "employer friendly" FB page but he was way ahead of me. The funny part is that he hardly even uses FB and anything on there is harmless.... None the less he decided he didn't want to work for a company like that so no harm done...
This week, my employer changed to a "Google Managed Account" for our mail server, calendar and various other features. This was considered a "mandatory" change and with email there really isn't much choice.
As soon as a user signs on for the first time, he needs to agree to the terms which basically say that the administrator (i.e. employer) will have access to essentially everything that runs through that browser when you are signed in... so email, (fair enough, since it's work) but also contacts, calendar, browsing history, bookmarks etc. It took me about .25 seconds to object to this. I work from home and into the evenings frequently so I am very likely answering client emails and playing on Terb at the same time... Something that is none of my employers business.
I don't think most browsers allow you to be signed in to multiple accounts at the same time, so I am now running two browsers... Chrome for work and Firefox for everything else.
Over the next couple of days, I will also be separating my contacts into two separate files (work and otherwise) and I refuse to share my calendar. (I work on straight commission and how I choose to spend my time is nobody's business but mine.) My department head has already commented that my calendar is barren (we were obliged to share them for scheduling meetings, vacations etc.) but I'll be damned if I am sharing my "real" calendar. I told him he should feel free to add meetings and so on to it, and he responded that he wouldn't know when I was free... I told him I would let him know.
I know that a lot of you in big companies are used to this, but I'm not. And it bugs me. While I trust the owner of this company, he recently hired a new CEO and that isn't the case with him... I used to own my own business but sold them to this company as a pre-retirement move.
I see this as one more step towards employers being in our personal business.
Along the same lines, my son was interviewing for a job in Vancouver three weeks ago, and was asked for his "Facebook Name". He asked how that was relevant to him performing the duties he was being considered for, and was promptly advised that the interview was over. That's just wrong. I suggested he create a new "employer friendly" FB page but he was way ahead of me. The funny part is that he hardly even uses FB and anything on there is harmless.... None the less he decided he didn't want to work for a company like that so no harm done...
