Page 273 - Using MIS

As you think about the amount of data that key logging your free speech regarding laws Congress may enact, and
files, log files, and packet sniffing files contain, you may while in some limited sense it does protect federal employ-
feel secure that out of the millions of messages sent and ees, it doesn’t protect anyone else at work.
received, your employer is unlikely to find your problematic Well, you think, they can’t fire me for just anything, can
ones. Text mining is the application of statistical techniques they? Alas, again, unless you have negotiated an employ-
on text streams for locating particular words or patterns of ment contract, you are what the attorneys call an employee
particular words and even correlating word counts and pat- at will. That means the employer can fire you for any reason
13
terns with personality profiles. The results can be used to whatsoever. The only exceptions are that you cannot be
find undesirable employees such as thieves, sexual preda- fired because of your race, gender, religion, or disability.
tors, those engaged in an illicit romance, and any other You also cannot be fired for performing a public service
profiles the employer creates (disgruntled employee?). So such as jury duty. But, if you write an email on a computer
hiding in the company data pile is little protection. at work that says your boss’s spouse is a jerk, he or she can
Aha, you’re thinking. What about the First Amendment? fire you (the boss, not the spouse).
It protects me, no? Alas, no. The First Amendment preserves

DisCussion Questions

1. List the types of data that you think are appropriate for subordinates is conducting an affair with someone not
your employer to gather about you: his or her spouse:
a. On employer-provided devices. a. What would you do if the affair involves two people
b. On personal devices used at work or at home on who work at your employer?
employer-provided networks. b. What would you do if the affair involves someone not
2. As a manager, list the types of data that you would like to employed by your company?
obtain on your employees. c. Do you think obtaining such knowledge is
3. If there are differences between your answers to ques- appropriate?
tions 1 and 2, explain and justify the differences. 6. Given what you have learned regarding electronic sur-
4. Under what circumstances do you think is it appropriate veillance at work, state your own personal guidelines for
for your employer to install a key logger on your per- computer use.
sonal mobile device? 7. Reread the definition of job security in Chapter 1. Using
5. Suppose someone from your IT department informs you that definition as a foundation, state what you can do, as an
that the company has evidence that one of your married employee at will, to avoid being fired for a frivolous reason.

13 Lewis Maltby, Can They Do That? (New York: Penguin Group, 2009), pp. 60–62.
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