Hand Picked Headline News
    - Served Fresh Daily -

Privacy ::
The "E-Commerce Times" Commentary

Decent commentary from a Toronto E-Lawyer who also does the Laws of Dot Com site.

Privacy ::
"Lacombe Globe" Story on the Keystroke Logging Incident

It's a sad day when libraries decide to spy on their employees!

Privacy ::
"Red Deer Advocate" Coverage on the Parkland Regional Library Keystroke Logging Fiasco

Ladies and gentleman, your tax dollars at work!

Privacy ::
Another Take On the Use of Keystroke Loggers in the Workplace

I just can't help but agree with this guy!

Privacy ::
A Primer on Keystroke Loggers

Do you sleep well at night?

A couple of weeks ago the Privacy Commissioner for the Province of Alberta published his ruling on the use of keystroke logging software for employee performance monitoring.(PDF) His decision clearly indicated that keystroke logging software was excessive, intrusive, invasive, and indiscriminate in the information it gathers. Curiously, Parkland Regional Library's flawed logic attempts to defend keystroke logging as an objective measure of employee performance. For anybody interested on why this is flawed logic I would suggest a scan of the comments on Slashdot concerning this matter.

Anyhow..., the Privacy Commissioner for the Province of Alberta ruled that the information collected by way of the STARR keystroke logger was stored in a secure manner. Unfortunately, a wee bit of research into this matter would have clearly shown that the information gathered was, in fact, stored as "clear text" html files easily viewed by anyone with a web browser contrary to what's been reported. That would be just about anyone with a computer hooked to the Internet these days. As far as this genre of software is concerned I would have to say that the IOPUS STARR product is amateurish at best and if nothing else, sleazy.

The deployment of the STARR software on the Parkland Regional Library network was poorly implemented and completely unnecessary. Curiously, software I provided for Parkland Regional Library network in the form of the Request Tracker trouble ticketing software provided PRL with everything they needed to monitor employee productivity and much more. Unfortunately, inept management completely missed the opportunity to exploit Request Tracker for 'Human Resource' purposes. This is clearly an example where IT staff have no business whatsoever dabbling in 'human resources' matters.

Check back regularly, no telling what little nugget of gnarled knowledge or whimsical wisdom you're going to unearth here but it could be a 'Breaking News Nugget' - and you can say you saw it here first. Others will just have to wait for the rest to catch up.

Note:: These headlines rotated, updated & barbecued throughout the day. Enjoy!

Hasta La L8r Señor Headline Hunter