Can my employer view my chats?
November 2, 2014 8:12 AM Subscribe
My employer provides me with a blackberry, can they view my yahoo messenger chats that I have on that device.
My blackberry is given to me for professional and personal use (i.e. my personal cell phone number was transferred to this device and company policy says that I can use the device for personal use). I logged into my company's "system" to receive email (apologies, I am a bit technology challenged and don't know all of the proper terms) using "enterprise activation" on the blackberry. From time to time I use yahoo messenger on the blackberry and would rather my employer not see the conversations for a variety of reasons. For what it's worth, I notice that websites that are blocked on my work desktop are not blocked on the blackberry browser, and I cannot access the company intranet on the blackberry, so my perhaps optimistic assumption is that I am not on the company's network for purposes of web browsing/chatting. Am I right? How hard would it be for someone at the company to actually see my chat conversations? Is there any additional way of knowing what they can and can't see?
My blackberry is given to me for professional and personal use (i.e. my personal cell phone number was transferred to this device and company policy says that I can use the device for personal use). I logged into my company's "system" to receive email (apologies, I am a bit technology challenged and don't know all of the proper terms) using "enterprise activation" on the blackberry. From time to time I use yahoo messenger on the blackberry and would rather my employer not see the conversations for a variety of reasons. For what it's worth, I notice that websites that are blocked on my work desktop are not blocked on the blackberry browser, and I cannot access the company intranet on the blackberry, so my perhaps optimistic assumption is that I am not on the company's network for purposes of web browsing/chatting. Am I right? How hard would it be for someone at the company to actually see my chat conversations? Is there any additional way of knowing what they can and can't see?
I actually think you should ask the IT department what they can see and not see on your blackberry, and what's subject to company control on it. That it's for "professional and personal" use and they put your personal cell number on there and then added the enterprise e-mail ... it's possible they aren't monitoring your use of it.
However, you should assume that in the case of a lawsuit against your employer that involves you, all your activity on the device is potentially discoverable. We had a brief sensation around here when such personal/professional devices and people's "fine to browse internet at lunch" computers were pulled into a lawsuit against a local company and some of the documents that eventually wended their way into the publicly-accessible parts of the trial documents included people surfing porn at work and a well-respected big-deal local guy arranging meetings with his mistress, a situation his wife was ignorant of until it was in the newspaper.
Whatever the set-up, I'd avoid porn, marital affairs, plotting crimes (including drug use), and bitching about work on a plausibly work-connected machine. Schmoopy chats with your girlfriend, amazon shopping for cat-fancier books, nobody cares.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 8:48 AM on November 2, 2014 [4 favorites]
However, you should assume that in the case of a lawsuit against your employer that involves you, all your activity on the device is potentially discoverable. We had a brief sensation around here when such personal/professional devices and people's "fine to browse internet at lunch" computers were pulled into a lawsuit against a local company and some of the documents that eventually wended their way into the publicly-accessible parts of the trial documents included people surfing porn at work and a well-respected big-deal local guy arranging meetings with his mistress, a situation his wife was ignorant of until it was in the newspaper.
Whatever the set-up, I'd avoid porn, marital affairs, plotting crimes (including drug use), and bitching about work on a plausibly work-connected machine. Schmoopy chats with your girlfriend, amazon shopping for cat-fancier books, nobody cares.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 8:48 AM on November 2, 2014 [4 favorites]
Offhand, I'd say it's doubtful that your employer can see that traffic, as it's probably encrypted over SSL. That said, even if it weren't, it's a huge pain in the ass to capture that data, let alone go back and analyze it. Unless you work for some large conglomerate with elaborate security issues (investment banks, government agencies, etc.), you can feel reasonably secure that when you use your device to communicate over third-party services, your conversations could be monitored in theory, but won't unless there's something like a subpoena or lawsuit involved.
posted by mkultra at 9:25 AM on November 2, 2014
posted by mkultra at 9:25 AM on November 2, 2014
It's a big maybe. It depends entirely on how they have configured things on their end. Assuming they are using a Blackberry Enterprise Server, it's up to them whether all Internet traffic is routed back through their BES or not. It can be set up either way.
You can get some idea by asking google "What's my IP?" when you're connected to your Wifi at home. If it's your home Internet connection's address, so shows the same on a computer and your phone, you're probably good. If it's an IP associated with your employer, you know they are routing everything through themselves and should assume they can monitor everything.
posted by wierdo at 10:28 AM on November 2, 2014
You can get some idea by asking google "What's my IP?" when you're connected to your Wifi at home. If it's your home Internet connection's address, so shows the same on a computer and your phone, you're probably good. If it's an IP associated with your employer, you know they are routing everything through themselves and should assume they can monitor everything.
posted by wierdo at 10:28 AM on November 2, 2014
Regardless of what the company policy says, never use company-issued equipment for personal communications if you value your privacy.
posted by starbreaker at 1:56 PM on November 3, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by starbreaker at 1:56 PM on November 3, 2014 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by NoDef at 8:26 AM on November 2, 2014 [12 favorites]