Boeing bosses spy on workers

[Newsjock]

Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Within its bowels, The Boeing Co. holds volumes of proprietary information deemed so valuable that the company has entire teams dedicated to making sure that private information stays private.

One such team, dubbed "enterprise" investigators, has permission to read the private e-mails of employees, follow them and collect video footage or photos of them. Investigators can also secretly watch employee computer screens in real time and reproduce every keystroke a worker makes, the Seattle P-I has learned.

For years, Boeing workers have held suspicions about being surveilled, according to a long history of P-I contact with sources, but at least three people familiar with investigation tactics have recently confirmed them.

... Recently, a Boeing investigator told a Puget Sound-area employee that he was followed off company property to a lunch spot, that investigators had footage of him "coming and going" and that investigators had accessed his personal Gmail account.

The primary reason for the 2007 investigation, the employee said, was Boeing's suspicion that he had spoken with a member of the media. The employee learned the details of the investigation during a three-hour meeting, in which investigators laid out some of their findings. He has since been fired.

Read more: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/339881_boeingsurveillance16.html

---

Very long report

[rsmith6621]

1. Trust....

....There is none anymore...Boeing does extensive background checks on their employees and I guess that isnt good enough....


............Yep BIG BROTHER HAS ARRIVED!!!!

[iaviate1]

5. Not that they have to trust you...

but hacking personal gmail accounts? I suspect this is not limited to Boeing.

[Thothmes]

7. If its Boeings computer, it aint personel email accounts

[Crayson]

12. who cares...

Just hack back and find your bosses dirty laundry.
^_^

A little key logger on his comp from your usb stick in a minute he doesn't watch.

A sniffer on the network since your probably connected to the same network component from your cubicle around the corner of the bosses office.

And so on.
^_^

[truthisfreedom]

2. And I don't even do criminal background checks on my employees.

[dysfunctional press]

3. are you a large defense contractor?

'nuf said...boeing has every right and even a responsibility to do this.

[iaviate1]

4. They should sift through mailboxes at home too...

And follow you when you leave your house on the weekends. What a ridiculous suggestion.

[Trajan]

6. I worked at Boeing for 8 years ....

It was my expectation that my actions were being watched. I had no expectation of privacy using company computers, even if visiting my own private web based email accounts ....

In 1996, when Boeing bought Rockwell, they passed out packets of new Boeing rules that would supercede Rockwell work rules: One of the statements which we were required to sign off on was that Boeing reserved the right to watch what was happening on THEIR computers, even if private business was involved ....

We had to sign that agreement in order to use Boeing owned computing resources ....

They certainly check EVERY image that passes through the web server for inappropriate content, and they know exactly who is downloading what ...... If an employee doesnt already know that ... well: what can you say about that ? Anyone ignorant enough to be unaware that EVERY data bit of content is being fed to you through company servers and who downloads inappropriate content deserves to get nailed .... I also believed that cameras were placed in different locations on the premises .... Again: I didn't own the building, they did .... I acted accordingly ....

I cannot nor will not condone what Boeing has done outside of company purview and scope: But IF you are using THEIR computers, you really don't have a right to 'privacy' there, given the immediate ownership of the resources ..... Using company computers at Boeing is against work rules, and everybody there knows it ..... Each logon provided a bootup message stating that private email accounts accessed from company computers were subject to scrutiny: To what extent is proper?, I cannot say, but the warnings were very plainly stated ....

I NEVER visited any websites that were 'inappropriate' from Boeing computers : But I did visit DU on breaks ..... I am sure they shadowed me, but that didnt matter, because I didn't say anything I would regret, nor anything that my own boss (a Liberal) wouldn't say himself, or hadn't heard from many of his employees ....

Bush is an asshole, and everyone knows it .....

I was never bothered by Boeing about it .....

[dysfunctional press]

9. ????

what suggestion are you referring to?

:shrug: because i can't see where i made one.

[michreject]

8. Most, if not all large companies do this

It's their computer.

[Odin2005]

10. Corporations are police states in miniature. n/t.

[BulletproofLandshark]

11. One of my coworkers used to work for Boeing in the DC area.

She told me that no one could go to the bathroom unaccompanied for fear of a security breach. Jeez!

[Audio_Al]

13. Can we please K&R this story?

There are follow-up radio stories which I read at Oregon Public Broadcasting today while my wife was recording with an author.

[Audio_Al]

14. Based on another Seattle P-I story today, here's more of the story:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/339884_email16.html

Friday, November 16, 2007
Last updated 11:27 a.m. PT

At work, all e-mail can be public
By DAN RICHMAN
P-I REPORTER

By now, most employees have gotten the message: It's both technically possible and legally permissible for your employer to read e-mail you send or receive at work.

That seems logical. If you're using an e-mail address ending with your company's name -- a type of e-mail known as POP3 (Post Office Protocol) -- the address makes it clear that the company owns the domain name and the server on which the e-mail system resides.

But what about Web-based e-mail, such as Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo Mail?

Sure, you write and read it on your employer's computer, but it somehow seems like it's more private. You can access it from anywhere, and the company's name isn't part of your address.

"Web-based e-mail is absolutely perceived to be more secure by many employees, but I think employers can monitor it," said Virginia Culler, 26, a freelance writer who lives in Capitol Hill.

Right on both accounts, experts say. They warn workers to curb their tendencies toward unfettered personal expression, whistle-blowing and any other activity on the Internet that they'd rather the world not know about.

(More at link above ^^^^^^^^)

[Blue_Tires]

15. rec'd