Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site lsuc.UUCP Path: utzoo!utcs!lsuc!dave From: dave@lsuc.UUCP (David Sherman) Newsgroups: net.legal Subject: Re: computer security, privacy, and ethics Message-ID: <671@lsuc.UUCP> Date: Sun, 16-Jun-85 08:53:30 EDT Article-I.D.: lsuc.671 Posted: Sun Jun 16 08:53:30 1985 Date-Received: Sun, 16-Jun-85 09:32:58 EDT References: <250@phri.UUCP> <872@daemon.UUCP> <1682@ittvax.ATC.ITT.UUCP> Reply-To: dave@lsuc.UUCP (David Sherman|Law Society of Upper Canada|Toronto) Distribution: net Organization: Law Society of Upper Canada, Toronto Lines: 21 Summary: what if the employer "steals" the encryption key? In article aouriri@ittvax.ATC.ITT.UUCP (Chedley Aouriri) writes: ||Several companies have an explicitly written policy stating that ||ALL files stored on the company's computers are company property. ||In those companies, many employees encrypt their personal files ||with a hard to break encryption algorithm. Thus, they can keep ||their personal files without worring about would be pokers, and ||without violating the company's policy. ||This seems to work pretty well for both parties. What if the systems administrator, on behalf of the company, decides to "get" the employee's encryption key (e.g., by modifying crypt(1) so it quietly mails a copy of the key to the administrator)? Aside from this not being a particularly nice thing to do, I can't see this being illegal, given that it's clear the employer owns the system and everything on it. Comments? Dave Sherman The Law Society of Upper Canada Toronto -- { ihnp4!utzoo pesnta utcs hcr decvax!utcsri } !lsuc!dave