Personal Use of Work Computers

I received a phone call from someone who found 21CCC in the SBC Yellow Pages. He said that he had worked for seven years at a "huge corporation" until being fired recently for having used a company laptop to view pornographic web sites.

He said, "I never did that! I'm not so stupid as to use a company laptop for something like that!"
"Did you use it for business only?" I asked.
"No, I used it for personal stuff, but not before I got the OK from my boss."
"Written approval from your boss?"
"No."

Well, that was his first mistake. The company has a written Internet policy--he signed it--but the exception to the rule was verbal. He had no proof.

"But how could my supervisor say that I looked at porn sites when I didn't?" he asked. "I was fired for that and it will go on my personnel record. I don't want something like that on my permanent record."

On further questioning, I found that the laptop ran Windows 98 with Internet Explorer and that this person's primary activity was engaging in a discussion group about a hobby. However, from time-to-time, he surfed the web and every now and then would be flooded with popups, some of which were for "adult" web sites.

Please bear in mind that every web site he ever visited is recorded in a hidden log file. Also, the cookies, his recent browsing history and temporary graphic files are stored on the computer's disk. These were what his supervisor inspected before firing him. He could have deleted these before turning in the laptop and that might have saved his job.

Why? Those popups would have been listed in all of those places. His supervisor might have gotten the wrong (or right) impression from a two-minute review.

I advised him that this was really a legal matter and he should talk to an attorney. If he was as innocent as he claimed, the threat of a wrongful dismissal lawsuit would probably turn the tables. The company would be required to support its claim about pornography and would have to prove it using those log files.

If you are an employee using a company computer, you must be very careful not to mix business with pleasure. It is next to impossible for a normal user to hide personal usage.