Access denied

[Gump]

We are allowed some use of the internet at work beyond work related stuff. We have all noticed that our work computers block access to anything about our Governor. Doesn’t matter the context, it’s all blocked. Interesting....

[shootingstar]

33 minutes ago, Zackny said:

We are allowed some use of the internet at work beyond work related stuff. We have all noticed that our work computers block access to anything about our Governor. Doesn’t matter the context, it’s all blocked. Interesting....

Strange. Even the news via mainstream news channels?  It makes no sense.

I don't know who your employer is.  

Since I work for govn't, it is actually important that our employees (some, not all) know sudden public decisions announced at higher levels of govn't. It can have budget, legislative and policy impact on us directly.  There are one-way or 2-way partnerships that we have in terms of signed agreements with that other level of govn't.

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, shootingstar said:

Strange. Even the news via mainstream news channels?  It makes no sense.

I don't know who your employer is.  

Since I work for govn't, it is actually important that our employees (some, not all) know sudden public decisions announced at higher levels of govn't. It can have budget, legislative and policy impact on us directly.  There are one-way or 2-way partnerships that we have in terms of signed agreements with that other level of govn't.

I also work for government. NY State. These are news articles on various websites that can be accessed by everyone. They don’t even need to be negative. If it mentions the Governor, it’s blocked.

[maddmaxx ★]

Probably political and election related.  Mums the word this season.

[ChrisL]

I generally don’t surf on my work computer as many sites are blocked.  I just surf the net on my phone.

[shootingstar]

17 minutes ago, maddmaxx said:

Probably political and election related.  Mums the word this season.

That has never happened for any Canadian govn't I've worked for: Provincial govn'ts for Ontario and British Columbia.  I currently work for a municipality.

Sure there have been highly anticipated/hotly contested elections in past few decades on our side, but that still has not resulted in site blocking.  Honest, if I was a supervisor, I would prefer an employee be looking at mainstream news on certain developments by another government level that would affect our government.  Better than surfing around on a retail site.

Look, there was just a wildcat strike by some hospital workers in our capital city ....today.  It is a direct response to cuts by our provincial premier. 

 

 

[Zephyr]

59 minutes ago, ChrisL said:

I generally don’t surf on my work computer as many sites are blocked.  I just surf the net on my phone.

This for me too...., except it is a work phone.  Nothing is blocked but big brother is (probably not) watching

[JerrySTL ★]

Your routers probably have governors install to keep the interwebs from going too fast.

[shootingstar]

5 hours ago, Zephyr said:

This for me too...., except it is a work phone.  Nothing is blocked but big brother is (probably not) watching

Big brother IS watching.

I know our Corporate Security dept. has the tools and is using tools to monitor.  Someone in my work team, was seconded for a yr. to work there.  That's how we know...and the name of software applications they use to monitor.

I worked for a global firm in Toronto. A person was fired for downloading porn from his work computer.

Anyway, blocking the name of our provincial leader would mean no one would know that elective surgery is postponed in a city north of us, because of union strike today onward.  If the river in our city flooded and someone mentioned our provincial leader in same news item....then we wouldn't know fast enough it happened!  A person's name in public office, no longer (nor ever did) exist in isolation.

[Guest]

33 minutes ago, shootingstar said:

Big brother IS watching.

I know our Corporate Security dept. has the tools and is using tools to monitor.  Someone in my work team, was seconded for a yr. to work there.  That's how we know...and the name of software applications they use to monitor.

I worked for a global firm in Toronto. A person was fired for downloading porn from his work computer.

Anyway, blocking the name of our provincial leader would mean no one would know that elective surgery is postponed in a city north of us, because of union strike today onward.  If the river in our city flooded and someone mentioned our provincial leader in same news item....then we wouldn't know fast enough it happened!  A person's name in public office, no longer (nor ever did) exist in isolation.

Ours does too but again our policy is some incidental use is allowed. Its just very obvious that we are blocked from anything mentioning our governor. 

[Zephyr]

34 minutes ago, shootingstar said:

Big brother IS watching

Not us.  Not really.  There are just too many of us.  Unless someone makes a complaint about a specific person, or some bizarre expense on the phone, they are not checking our phone logs or search history.

I took a complaint one night that involved a porn site.  It was urgent enough to need to be checked, so I grabbed the only female member working and the two of us sat down and made the queries to the site on a stand alone work computer.  We made numerous checks to deal with the file and took lots of notes.  I sent the boss a message to explain the searches and the file number for when the tech persons called.  No  one did.  When I dug into it further, turns out they do not post flags unless it is specific.  There are just way too many people to oversee

[shootingstar]

2 hours ago, Zephyr said:

Not us.  Not really.  There are just too many of us.  Unless someone makes a complaint about a specific person, or some bizarre expense on the phone, they are not checking our phone logs or search history.

I took a complaint one night that involved a porn site.  It was urgent enough to need to be checked, so I grabbed the only female member working and the two of us sat down and made the queries to the site on a stand alone work computer.  We made numerous checks to deal with the file and took lots of notes.  I sent the boss a message to explain the searches and the file number for when the tech persons called.  No  one did.  When I dug into it further, turns out they do not post flags unless it is specific.  There are just way too many people to oversee

While I don't disagree that we have too many employees to check regularily (key word), it is my understanding Corporate Security could execute their online investigative reports (without our knowledge) with automated software checks.  Our written corporate policies which all employees are told to read and they are actually revealed publicly on our public Internet use, is on appropriate use of work technology and work Internet use.  

This includes use of our work technology if you attempt to run a separate private side business outside of one's full-time job.  I believe 2 employees were caught on this.

 

[ChrisL]

8 hours ago, Zephyr said:

This for me too...., except it is a work phone.  Nothing is blocked but big brother is (probably not) watching

Yeah mine is a work phone too but...

22 minutes ago, shootingstar said:

While I don't disagree that we have too many employees to check regularily (key word), it is my understanding Corporate Security could execute their online investigative reports (without our knowledge) with automated software checks.  Our written corporate policies which all employees are told to read and they are actually revealed publicly on our public Internet use, is on appropriate use of work technology and work Internet use.  

This includes use of our work technology if you attempt to run a separate private side business outside of one's full-time job.  I believe 2 employees were caught on this.

 

This... we don’t seem to monitor cell phone closely but they can.  There is nothing inappropriate, just lots of cycling & sports sites in my browsing history.