Corporate secrets and Cell Phone Cameras

First of all if you want to go see about personal privacy and cell phone cameras go to this thread http://www.antionline.com/showthread...hreadid=244770.

I saw today on techtv that many companies have banned picture taking cell phones. "Picture phones represent the latest craze in cellphone technology. But these small lenses have caused big policy changes at major auto companies, which have banned the phones from product-testing areas and sensitive design centers. With more than 10 million camera phones sold worldwide this year, expect more companies to follow suit"
this was from Sumi Das of the techtv show "Tech Live."

This could be a major revolution in many companies' policies of not restricting a healthy amount of communication in the workplace. Next they might limit email (someplaces already have) and other forms of communication all for the sake of their proprietary and ""Secret"" information.

Are you saying that proprietary and "Secret" information which is an important and healthy part of a competitive economy, should give way to people sending pictures of their pet rats via cell phone?

Of course not but I believe that companies may let this go to their head and start limiting free speech and free communication all in the name of corporate privacy when most workers have no interest in stealing trade secrets.

This is in no way limiting free speach or communications. If a worker isn't interested in stealing trade secrates then he shouldn't mind leaving his cell phone outside, besides why do you need your cell phone inside your office? A company that dosn't inact a policy like this can expect there competiters to take advantage of them.

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Originally posted here by CyberSpyder
Of course not but I believe that companies may let this go to their head and start limiting free speech and free communication all in the name of corporate privacy when most workers have no interest in stealing trade secrets.

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When you are using company resources and equipment there is no such thing as free speech OR free communication. You are on their payroll and using their systems to fulfill their contracts, not to chat with your buddy or send pics of the kids to grandma. My last venture inside of the corporate world was with a company that allowed NO communications outside of that particular facility without permission from upper management and the system admin. Do what you want at home, but when you're on the clock the company OWNS YOU.

Given the practices I've seen in the past, I can't say that I blame them....

I see you're point even though I refuse to think that all people should be limited by what some people have done, I do agree that the company can and must do what they deem neccessary for them.



Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous.

-Confucius

Unfortunately with our legal system rules cannot be made that single out individuals so everyone must suffer because of an inconsiderate few. So why arn't we putting the blame on those few. Restrictive rules wouldn't be necessary if we all just spoke out when someone acted wrongly rather than sheepishly not getting involved. the loss of our freedoms makes us all involved if we want to be or not.

if rules are made that restrict cell phones with or without webcams from work areas it will be partly because a few idiots abused a privilage but mostly because everyone else allowed it by not doing or saying anything

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Originally posted here by bballad
... besides why do you need your cell phone inside your office? ...

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well let's be pragmatic here. I use my cell phone in my office ALL the time. I do receive a lot of calls on my cell though because of the nature of my job. I'm rarely sitting at my desk for any period of time because there is almost always something going on in one of the datacenters that fall under my jurisdiction and most of my communication will occur in a server room.

So that means I always carry my cell with me, even when I'm in the office.

I know the sales people are like that too, and I'm sure this isn't limited to just my company as it's been this way for a few years for me.

Now I do agree about leaving a camera/cell phone outside of sensitive areas, but I wouldn't try to make a discrimination between a regular cell phone and a camera/cell phone when I wrote the policy. I would just ban cell phones from that area unless there is a written waiver by one of the officers of the company. That limits the amount of risk you are exposed to, and also creates a level of accountability for people.

well you guys are lucky you even have cell phones, I'm a highschool college and all my friends have cell phones, even my soon to be step brother (my dad's getting remarried) has a cell phone. (sorry to be off topic)

Personally, I understand where te companies are coming from. If a cell phone is required to work, and the company is paranoid about sensitive images being sent, then they should provide "company" approved cellphones for it's employees. I would be more then happy to leave mine in the car, if the job's gonna provide me one for work.

I think the point here is that if you walk into work with your mini minalta 007 type camera its pretty obvious your upto no good. With the proliferation of camera phones, from a security pount of view. Spotting the person involved in a spot of industrial espeonage becomes that bit more difficult. Basicaly i think that if you wouldn't be allowed to take a normal camera into an area at work then you won't be alowed to take your camera phone there either.

Recently a man was prossecuted for taking a picture with a phone in a court here in the UK.

Techtech said:

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Personally, I understand where te companies are coming from. If a cell phone is required to work, and the company is paranoid about sensitive images being sent, then they should provide "company" approved cellphones for it's employees. I would be more then happy to leave mine in the car, if the job's gonna provide me one for work.

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I agree completely.
I am at customer buisness's almost every day, in various parts of the country(USA), and alot of them prohibit cameras from being taken into their facilities. A few, prohibit cell phones. This (the cell phones) is mainly for safety, as they are high traffic facilities: ie. warehouses, loading docks, and production facilities. I imagine that the buisnesses that prohibit cameras will also start to prohibit cell phones, as it could be hard to differentiate between a camara phone and a regular phone. Easier, just to ban all mobil phones.
I asked one customer why they prohibited cameras. The answer was; We don't want our competition to see our propriatary production facility. I can understand that.
Moxnix

i also agree that its just parinoia

Policies.

Rule 1 : You work in "my" company. I dont allow mobiles in my company. Period.
Rule 2 : Work computers. Not to be used to surf or send private mails. I can log anything you do on this box. Period.
Rule 3 : You dont like my policies. Then leave.

I think some of you should come to Greece to work. Here there is no such thing as whining and what "you" want at work. You do what your wage payer tells you, or be gone. If a company sets a policy that they dont want mobiles with or without cams within the company, then it means that you are NOT TO BRING these into the company. The company pays you to do what they want. Not what you want, the way you want it. In the company i used to work in, the "user's" clients all had a vnc server installed, so that I could see what they are upto. I had banners upon login telling them that all their actions can, and will be monitored on company grounds. If a user came to me and told me "i dont want you to see what im doing on my computer", then he might aswell get lost.

Learn to respect and follow policies. If you dont like them, then goto some place where the policies are more loose.

Cheers.

hmmm interesting viewpoint coming from someone in a country where books, tv, videogames, movies, etc... are openly censored.

i totally do not see this as a limit to free speech. in a world where a large portion of the population are not trust worthy, how can these companies allow camera phones near vital sensitive information? do you think they allow camera phones in the pentagon, esp in classified areas... i would say not. so why is this different? these companies do not want their "enemies" or rival companies to get info that could be detrimental to said companies well being.

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Originally posted here by Lv4



well let's be pragmatic here. I use my cell phone in my office ALL the time. I do receive a lot of calls on my cell though because of the nature of my job. I'm rarely sitting at my desk for any period of time because there is almost always something going on in one of the datacenters that fall under my jurisdiction and most of my communication will occur in a server room.

So that means I always carry my cell with me, even when I'm in the office.

I know the sales people are like that too, and I'm sure this isn't limited to just my company as it's been this way for a few years for me.

Now I do agree about leaving a camera/cell phone outside of sensitive areas, but I wouldn't try to make a discrimination between a regular cell phone and a camera/cell phone when I wrote the policy. I would just ban cell phones from that area unless there is a written waiver by one of the officers of the company. That limits the amount of risk you are exposed to, and also creates a level of accountability for people.

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You must have a coveted window office, every where I have workd cell phone reception has been none existant except for a few perfectly located meeting rooms.

Oh and insotronics while a few mom and pop shops may be difrent what you discribed is no difrent from corperate America (especialy now when workers are a dime a dozen)

Lv4: I can relate... My job position is requires me to have my phone on me at ALL times... for "EMERGENCY" situations.

I have one of those motorolla nextell direct connect phones. Damn thing has reception EVERYWHERE! People just don't use it for "EMERGENCY" situations either... whenever you don't answer your desk phone in one ring or less... they are on a second phone calling your cell phone.

I wish that my company would set forth a policy such as this... so I don't have lusers calling me all day with "huge" problems...

The worst part is when your in the bathroom, taking care of some real business... and...

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*BEEP BEEP*... "namesensored, where are you? Joe User just called and they need you to call them RIGHT away... it seems that they forgot how to enter their password though they have been using the same one day in and out for two weeks..."

my reply: "Uh, I'm on the toilet, can you take care of it... or would you like me to call them from here?!... "

them: "oh, nevermind... it'll take me 30 seconds to do it... I just didn't have the application open..."

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I even get "important" phone calls at o'dark thrity on sat morning cause someones home personal computer made a "grinding" noise...

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Them: "Dude... I know its early but you HAVE to hear this! Oh, wait... it just stopped... it was making "grinding" noises"
Me: "Dude! Its 5:30 on Saturday morning... I just went to bed and I'm still drunk. Goodbye!"

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or at lunch...

"Uh, I know I just saw you leave for lunch and you won't be back for an hour... when you get back can you stop by so you can help me with such and such... "

Pisses me off.... send me an e-mail or leave me a message. I'll reply when I have time!

I'd be more than happy to get rid of that focker.
/rant

I guess I'm just lucky to have a job? :confused: :rolleyes:

Let me ask this question to all...

We all know that cameras are not allowed in banks but you are free to go in there with your cell phone but if your cell phone is equiped with a camera and you try to use it in the bank you will most likely be thrown out. Why would they throw you out? Simply, Cameras are not allowed in banks therefore a cellphone equiped with a camera causes a form of alert.

That's basically the same thing with companies. They have trade secrets they don't want their competitors to know, so they are not going to allow their workers to be walking around the job with a camera neither with a cell phone equiped with one.

In no way I see that as a loss of freedom of speech, it just a security measure of trade secrets and I don't see why us as workers can't go along with that.

You don't even need to have your cell phone on the job at most times unless it work related...

Guidance...

You know, I would bet money that it isn't really a change in policy at all. Those areas of the building do not allow cameras. It doesn't matter if the camera is part of a cell phone or if its part of something else. A camera is not allowed. There are certain areas of building which have always had non-recording/transmission device policies also. That way you don't have to worry about someone taping a conversaion or transmitting it to a 3rd party.

Any company that is actually stupid enough to allow employees into a restricted design area with cell phone cameras is doomed to fail and it deserves to fail.

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Originally posted here by cutty
Let me ask this question to all...

We all know that cameras are not allowed in banks but you are free to go in there with your cell phone but if your cell phone is equiped with a camera and you try to use it in the bank you will most likely be thrown out. Why would they throw you out? Simply, Cameras are not allowed in banks therefore a cellphone equiped with a camera causes a form of alert.

That's basically the same thing with companies. They have trade secrets they don't want their competitors to know, so they are not going to allow their workers to be walking around the job with a camera neither with a cell phone equiped with one.

In no way I see that as a loss of freedom of speech, it just a security measure of trade secrets and I don't see why us as workers can't go along with that.

You don't even need to have your cell phone on the job at most times unless it work related...

Guidance...

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well.. I work in a bank... so what your saying is... get a cell phone with a camera and I will not have to carry it around with me all the time?!

Brilliant! Why didn't I think of that before?! LoL

Come to think of it... I can get a camera add on for my palm too... so I can lighten the load by getting a camera for both!

Thank you cutty!!!!

CyberSpyder:

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hmmm interesting viewpoint coming from someone in a country where books, tv, videogames, movies, etc... are openly censored.

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Are you refering to my post?

yeah I was, you're welcome to you're opinion and all but I just wanted to point that out.

Hey CyberSpyder :)

Allow me help you understand the type of censorship we have here. Its not all that bad as it looks or may seem. Quote again:

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hmmm interesting viewpoint coming from someone in a country where books, tv, videogames, movies, etc... are openly censored.

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Ok, first a little general term. The only major censorship hitting all of your points is the church here. The people in Greece are religious, and theres nothing wrong or bad in believing in the bible or the church. The church sensors things that talk against the church, or for the devil. When it comes to books, no books are allowed saying things like "jesus was a faq" or a "liar" or anything like that. Im not a religious person myself, but i agree that its NOT essential to have a book like that in a country that believes in God. Its offensive to the people who grew up with their own beliefs. This all has good and bad sides. The good side is, we dont slaughter chickens and cats within some pentagram in the same extense as other countries do, and we dont kidnapp and sacrifice little girls to some satan. This applies mostly for the book censorship. TV is not censored here. We see all the movies uncut no matter how bloody or whatever else. And our news is not censored or corrupt as other news around the globe. I think the best example was the Iraq war, the only thing that CNN, BBC, and Star showed you was what the gov wanted you to see. It was all edited to the likings of the gov. On the other hand, our news showed us the loss of innocent lives, women and children. Not how the soldiers gave out candy bars to the Iraqi children and **** like that. Now, for the gaming law. I admitt there was a mistake when that law was made. The law originally was written to gambling games in public places, such as web cafes. We have strong gambling laws here. And its not wrong. The mistake was, that the law saw all electronic card games as gambling. It is a mistake in the law, and it will be changed. However, greece is known to take their time when it comes to these things, so in good time the law will change accordingly. Yes, at this moment, all electronic games are banned. 90% of the arcade games had a secret switch on the back side that would turn the arcade into a gambling box. Untill we can find a way to fix this problem, games will have to wait in public places. We also have game bans based on violence. I find it a disgrace to have kids under 16 years old play games like counter strike, or any other game where the only goal is to go and kill other people. Theres no excuse for that. Like i said earlier, the gaming subject is a problem, but all the other things you have mentioned are not a problem. No one complains about the other things. You do NOT have the right to say what were are allowed or supposed todo. If we in Greece want something, we make it very clear to our gov. We are not against the cencorship that our church gives us. We find it a disgrace what the churches in other countries allow though. Also, our church has a VERY strong voice in our system and law. Our gov respects our church and their desicisions. We are not as advanced as many of you when it comes to technology, or general community. But we dont need most of it. Our crime rate is one of the lowest world wide, and why???? Because of the way we believe and act. Because of the way we were brought up. We are not a violent greedy country. If we didnt have the censorship the way it currently is, then we would have a 300% upgrade in crime. By no means is our laws and gov or church perfect. No gov is perfect. But we are still very lucky the way we are. We still have something called privacy. A rare feature nowadays. We still pay 50 cents for a 3 hour bus drive.

I hope i have helped you understand to respect other countries laws and mentality cyberspyder. Our censorship is nothing compared to other countries. And we like it. The only people who dont like it, are the people who want to make money out of other peoples problems and missery.

By no means did i mean to rant or offend with this post cyber. I just wrote this, because i think that you have no real true idea about our censorships. Also, the reason why i marked this post as hidden is because its offtopic.

nuff said.

Cheers.

thanks, I'll remember that