Advice

[SlightlyfreakedouT1]

I was sacked this week. The week before I made a complaint to my boss that the company IT man had been logging onto my worktop whilst I was using it at home. My friends husband (who runs an IT company)confirmed this by looking at the logs for the remote access.

What I did not realise is that the IT man in question is my ex-bosses brother in law. I am unsure if this is a criminal offence or not and whether I should pursue it?

Plenty of people use work laptops to use social media, and not everyone wants to carry round 2 x laptops and 2 x phones with them, so inevitably will check email, do hangout calls etc on them. I do, especially when travelling for business.

I assure you many people dont carry 2 laptops or use their laptop for own use unless its stated in their agreement.

I carry one laptop and 2 phones. My own phone and my work phone. My work phone and laptop is for work only. Ever.

Fb etc is done on my own personal phone

What Spartacus said. That's how they'll portray it.

Actually Mychildcouldnotbreaatfeed I also have a personal laptop that I use at home, rather than my work one whenever possible, so I think it's reasonable to take that approach.

However it's not always practical and there are laws to protect employees' data privacy where they do for example access gmail or facebook on a work computer. New legislation is coming in next year called GDPR which will impose a greater requirement on companies to protect indviduals' data and to be clear on how it will be used.

evalina I am already aware of the implications of the GDPR. The op will have breached it by getting someone else to look at the laptop tho surely?

No, not unless she was showing him personal data from clients. If he was just looking at the computer access logs, then no breach, and the company would not have suffered any loss.

You are really getting hung up on this fraud thing. They did not say anything along those lines. I may have not recalled the whole conversation but I am sure that what they indicated was that for the amount of business I was bringing in it did not justify employing me. As I said previously, this was untrue. Taking my salary, the expense of the car, employer NI contributions into account I had more than paid for myself after the first 4 months. This was starting from scratch - it was a new position that nobody had done before.
I do not think they could even falsify the figures to say I was committing fraud and whilst he is somewhat dodgy, as a part time magistrate I do not think he would go down that route.

Eva there was potenial for a security breech. Someone access the remote log on kist and changing settings could be viewed as possible security breech.

The op doesnt have to physically show the friend anything confidential.

Evalina I agree with Spartacus.

Op. You did falsify work can't deny that.

OP - yes I agree, from what you've said there is no real indication that they were investigating you. If they were, I'm sure they would have made that clear when they terminated your employment.

Have a chat to ACAS. I think it will be hard to prove anything, but they will be able to give you some advice, and you can take it from there. Good Luck.

How did I falsify work? Do you mean by calling in sick?

*work records

Yes. You falsified a work record and called in sick when you weren't and they can preseumably prove that from the monitoring.

For eg. Did you have laptop or phone with you at interview or in your car?

Why wouldnt he. You are saying he is aware his bil is spying on employees, possibly illegally and sacked you to cover it up.

Such a stretch to say he will falsify records? You said he was bent.

Op you said they told you, your figures dont add up. Because you jusy accepted it and left your job. They can spin it anyeay they want and will to their own benefit.

Evalina I will do and thank you.

No i left lap top and phone at home and took another car so it looked like I was at home.

And no communication at all on work phone or laptop or in car that said you were iffsick when you were at the interview? You never looked at email or sent message or talked in car about it?

SpartacusSaiman

OP said "My friends husband (who runs an IT company)confirmed this by looking at the logs for the remote access." The only other thing her friend's husband did was to turn off the microphone. Perfectly reasonable given she had concerns about being watched. Can't see how that could be considered a security breach, especially as she was present at the time.

If they were illegally monitoring the OP's laptop, they'd be pretty stupid to try and use any information obtained that way. Even if the OP did something wrong, it doesn't mean that the employer has a carte blanche to commit criminal offences against her!

IT guy at my previous workplace lost his job after it was discovered he had installed secret cameras in the on call room

The IT staff do not have the right to spy on colleagues without their consent.

This sounds really dodgy to me, and I wonder if his previous prison sentence was for something similar? I would think it is definitely worth a discussion with the police.

It doesn't matter if she did use her work phone or laptop in the car on the way to the interview. Her employer had not formally notified her that they intended to monitor it, the scope, duration and how the data would be stored. So if they did so they would have broken the Data Protection Act and could be liable for a huge fine.

If they were accessing her laptop and listening in to or viewing her whilst at home without her knowledge and consent then that's is almost certainly a criminal offence.

Perfectly reasonable given she had concerns about being watched. Can't see how that could be considered a security breach, especially as she was present at the time.

I didnt say it breeched security. Its a potential breech. Op allowimg anyone she knows on her laptop is huge security risk and any company should take that seriously. Especially if client details are on there.

No company would ever ok someone outsode the company faffing with their IT equipment. Op already says he knows that was wrong.

She allowed him to look at the logs, whilst she was there - not client information.

OP has 3 children and was understandably concerned that she and they have been observed remotely so in the circumstances I think having someone look at the logs was reasonable.

OP - speak to the police - if they think it is concerning, they can seize the laptop and it should be easy enough to check the remote access logs, even if they've been deleted.

The op wasn't sacked from what she said.

The op breached dpa by letting someone else look at the laptop. She should have gone to the hr dept or MD and reported her concern that she was being monitored.

Lesson to all - don't use work laptop for anything you don't want them to monitor.

She didn't breach the Data Protection Act, and she did raise it as an issue with her boss, and was sacked a week later.

From the OP:
I was sacked this week. The week before I made a complaint to my boss that the company IT man had been logging onto my worktop whilst I was using it at home.

She shouldn't have let anyone else look at the laptop is my point.

Anyway. Hopefully she's learnt a lesson about personal vs work property.

And it sounds like they weren't exactly up on process and policies and since the op is a good sale person she will be able to get another job no problem.

OP - what makes you think the Web cam was being used? You say you were on hangouts and the IT man commented on what you'd been saying. If you were on hangouts on the laptop he would have been able to see what you were typing or hear what you were saying on the call through the laptop. It doesn't mean the Web cam was on.