Hey everybody.

I like to download songs and movies at work, but they have fairly strict rules about what's accebtable. Is it possible for them to monitor what files I am downloading? As soon as something is downloaded, I take it off my machine.

Thanks,

j

Don't forget about the Patriot Act...

Under it's provisions many government agencies for whatever reason can go to your ISP or any server and look at your records. But that's not all, it is a crime for the ISP or server to tell you that someone is looking at your activity...

The Electronic Frountier Foundation says...
http://www.eff.org/Privacy/Surveilla...orism/PATRIOT/
The law dramatically expands the ability of states and the Federal Government to conduct surveillance of American citizens. The Government can monitor an individual's web surfing records, use roving wiretaps to monitor phone calls made by individuals "proximate" to the primary person being tapped, access Internet Service Provider records, and monitor the private records of people involved in legitimate protests.
PATRIOT is not limited to terrorism. The Government can add samples to DNA databases for individuals convicted of "any crime of violence." Government spying on suspected computer trespassers (not just terrorist suspects) requires no court order. Wiretaps are now allowed for any suspected violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, offering possibilities for Government spying on any computer user.

Here's a great example of Patriot Act misuse I say at Slashdot this week...
http://www.caedefensefund.org/

If you post at Yahoo they say...
NOTE: Do not assume you are anonymous when posting to Yahoo! Message Boards. Although your IP address is not displayed on your post, Yahoo! does record your yahoo_id (alsoaswell) and IP address (2xx.25x.2x8.2x3) to help combat abuse. Law enforcement agencies may require Yahoo to disclose information regarding message board postings. Before you post, please read our Privacy Policy.

So be careful what you do or say unless you are protected...

Dear also aswell

Not being an American I ask the following question out of sheer ignorance, I thought that the American Constitution prevented Congress or the President from enacting such draconian laws.

Therefore, is it possible that such a law could, at some future date, be declared as “unconstitutional” and struck out?

Here, in the UK, the current government tried to introduce a law that would allow any government or quasi government agency the right to demand, from your ISP, your e-mails (both sent and received), surfing habits and anything else your ISP may have on their computers about you. However, this caused such an uproar from users, ISPs and even the Home Secretary's own son, who works in the computer industry, that the Home Secretary (sorry, I can’t think of the US equivalent) relented and abandoned this silly idea.

Still this "silly idea" may make a come back in some form or other.



UK Bob

PS. Most workplaces now can and do monitor their employees e-mails and downloads, especially as they can be held responsible for any action, legal or not, that the employee carries out.

Dear ukbob,

""Not being an American I ask the following question out of sheer ignorance, I thought that the American Constitution prevented Congress or the President from enacting such draconian laws.

""Therefore, is it possible that such a law could, at some future date, be declared as “unconstitutional” and struck out?

Unfortunately, the last couple of administrations here in the US haven't read the constitution of the US. And their supreme court appointees go along with them sometimes. If a case is appealed, it may take years to get to the supreme court and then they may not hear the case.
The last Democrat to run for presidents wife, Tipper Gore, was the head of group that wanted to ban explicit lyrics in music. And while Clinton was president the prison population here in the US doubled to 2.2 million people! Also, 68 new capitol crimes were added to the Federal lawbooks and groundwork for the Patriot Act was laid.

President Bush was doing worse than Clinton before the 911. Since then he and his Neocon buddies have really been doing an all out assault on the constitution so that even the radical right people are starting to get scared of him. Here's the governments official website on the Patriot Act.

http://www.lifeandliberty.gov/

Even the title is classic 1984 doublespeak...

Another new government program is called Matrix, provisions here let the government look at your library cards and credit card purcahses, again if you are checked out the librarian can be jailed if they tell you that you were fingered...

MATRIX (Multistate Anti-TeRrorism Information eXchange) is the latest data mining program to emerge from the government.__This surveillance system combines information about individuals from government databases and private-sector data companies.__It then makes those dossiers available for search by government officials and combs through the millions of files in a search for “anomalies” that may be indicative of terrorist or other criminal activity.

Most Americans are to busy trying to make enough to live on to worry much about these issues. We live from check to check and if you miss one you could soon join the ranks of the unemployed homeless...



http://www.aclu.org/Privacy/Privacy.cfm?ID=14240&c=130_

My mom's network connection at work could potentially download a 40MB music video from Videopimp.com in about 15 minutes, whereas it would take my connection about 4 hours. Of course, they monitor everything, she couldn't do stuff like that. Downloading music videos is illegal too.