Hey guys,
How does the computer spying / key recording work at the major banks? Do they record everything you type on your keyboard through a key logger in the keyboard or a software?
A little concerned because I was on meebo and one of my friends was talking how he some illegal drugs and what not and I responded to his instant messages because I was so bored at work and not really aware of what I was doing. Could I get in trouble for this? I doubt they have a screen recorder of meebo conversations, but I'd like to know just to be sure. I did think i typed the word coke once or twice. :/
I only have a few more weeks left here and I've already received a verbal offer, but I don't think I will take it. Just need the incident not reported to my manager and leave with a good recommendation.
Thanks everyone.
I always wonder about this but then think I'm paranoid. If they do have it I don't think they'd actually be filtering everything like some CIA interception center or anything, but if you had been suspected of doing something illegal. My friends and I often write some pretty obscene things about the previous weekend's activities and nothing has ever come of it (though obviously wouldn't mention anything outright illegal)
this is an interesting question, because the sheer amount of time many of us spend at work means that certain aspects of our personal lives must be taken care of during company time. oconnor is correct. don't lose sleep over it, but certainly be judicious in what you do at work. i think the mantra hr tells you during training is instructive. would you be comfortable if that event appeared in the ny times? if the answer's no, then you shouldn't do it at work.
There are a set of key words that will flag certain emails for review. Not sure about IM conversations.
Two summers ago my roommate sent me some stupid joke that was circulating his office. I responded with something along the lines of that is inappropriate blah blah. A minute later I got an email from the control officer with titled "Full Violation" with the entire email as an attachment. Various offensive phrases had been automatically highlighted. About three minutes later the MD and a different control officer came to my desk and walked me into the MD's office. The MD sent me home early and told me he did not know if I was fired or not and that HR had to handle the issue. This happened Friday morning and I did not hear anything all day so I assumed I should show up on Monday. On Monday I was called into the MD's office with a control officer and read an official letter of warning that would not go on my record with the bank. We both signed the letter and got copies. Lesson learned. Never respond to a questionable email or IM just delete it.
Obviously things like this are not allowed when using company email account, but I don't see why they would be when using meebo or your personal gmail account? You didn't do anything illegal just by mentioning the word "coke". Or am I wrong?
Personally, I wouldn't be too worried about this. It is not like they are monitoring everything all the time willy nilly. Just think about the amount of resources, money, hours, people etc. that would have to be committed to that sort of things. Even the CIA doesn't do that (because it is simply impossible), they do it in a targeted way because they are looking for certain high-priority things. So think about what would be on any bank's priority list to catch: something actually illegal that would hurt the bottom line and/or reputation of the firm. If you write something that contains certain key words or series of words that a computer program would catch, that's when you get in trouble (coke would most likely not be one of those words...sentences with a large amount of profanity in it could likely be caught). Of course you should be aware of this and not write something outright stupid in an e-mail, but thinking that every e-mail/chat would be checked (or even be read by a human being) is a bit paranoid.
I hate to stoke the paranoia, but here's some thoughts:
1) Depends on your area - - some parts of the bank get much more scrutiny than others (e.g., trading floors may get the most)
2) Depends on firm policy - - threshholds vary by firm.
3) Can always be used as a trumped-up reason against you down the road. If someone wanted to get rid of you for some bogus reason, you don't want to make it easier for them to do so.
4) The technology to track you is getting better and better, and cheaper. What might not be caught today without a lot of manual effort, could easily get caught a couple of years from now automatically. So you don't want to think of the "line" being static - - it's a moving target.
Bottom line, you really just need to get in the habit of applying iron-clad discipline, and not slipping up, in these matters. As I heard a business school professor say recently, "People need to realize that e-mail is a PUBLIC DOCUMENT." Think about that.
One last thought, regarding the individual firm's policy: I have heard that Bank of America is absolutely hard-ass in this area, no mercy.
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