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What to do about misrepresentative reporting

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by jck

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Recently, I started a new job. The environment that I am is incredibly slow-paced compared to the past places I have worked previously. For example, I will often go to my supervisor and ask for work rather than being brought projects to work on during the course of my work hours. I finish projects in quick order, and put them out for review. Sometimes, that takes several days and has even run into weeks before being looked at by senior staff before being deployed.

So in the meantime to do something somewhat constructive, I began going to technical sites for programming, hardware, etc., to read about latest news, trends, and technology that apply to my job as a software developer.

A few weeks ago, the department supervisor informed me that a report had shown that I was making attempts to go to sites with "adult" content. I assured the boss that I don't go to adult sites, and that I assume that the firewall/blocker was seeing embedded content that I couldn't control. Sure enough, video content sharing sites (such as YouTube) have been generically labelled as "adult".

So, now I can't go to websites to read about technical information without fear of being labelled as some kind of pervert who is going to adult sites during work hours. And, I understand that this report is going to be seen by top-level management who won't know that the blocking apparatus here hasn't been configured properly by the networking staff.

So, what am I to do? I don't have the means to get a 4G phone and surf from there, we are not allowed to bring in our own laptop with a mobile broadband card, and I do not want to sit here and just stare at walls because I can't go to TechRepublic or other technically-informative sites because I fear there will be an embedded webpage object that is from a website my organization has erroneously labelled "adult".

What would you do?

20 replies

by santeewelding

These may be wrinkles you can finagle, doctor, and otherwise smooth out over time to mutual advantages. Could also be the makings of a culture clash -- theirs and yours. They are bigger than you are.

by ansugisalas

refer your manager to a relevant blog (I recommend Jason Hiner's blogs, they are tailored for the tastes of the upper echelons), the problem will then be shared with another. Better still if the upper management can be gotten "infected" too.

So much easier to say your piece if they actually have reason to believe it can happen to the best of them :)

by jck

I told the Big Boss what happens.

In fact, I clicked a link from Wikipedia a little while ago that was supposed to go to a "international" website for a European tech supplier company.

It went to redirect me to a site that the system here said was "child pornography".

I emailed the big boss, and gave them a heads-up that a) I didn't try to go to child porn, and b) that I think that the filter system needs honing.

It's just sad. I try to keep informed about the who what when and where of tech, and I'm gonna get labelled as a sicko because of a lazy systems admin who didn't configure things well.

Glad I'm making screen captures of this stuff when it happens.

by av .

I worked extensively with Websense and currently I'm trying out SonicWall Viewpoint. As I have been the network police for years where I work, I can tell you that many sites are not categorized correctly. With Websense, we would get database updates that were pre-configured with categories. Sometimes valid sites were mis-categorized by Websense and the admin would have to make exceptions and/or submit URLs back to Websense to correct their database. What I did was go to the site in question and make a determination if it was really a policy violation. Many times it wasn't and I would make exceptions.

When this type of software is configured, you basically choose categories you want to block. It is very detailed and there is no way to get around it as long as you're using the company's internet access. They know how long you spend at each site too, so my word of caution to you is to be prudent in using your company's internet.

If I were you, I would give them a list of sites you would like to be able to visit and why you think they are important to your work. Your admin can make exceptions. Tech sites should not be blocked. You can't do anything about the ads on some of those sites. If you remember back before the site redesign on TR, some of the sponsored ads TR would display were sometimes pretty racy and had nothing to do with technology. I'm not sure if a Websense software would flag them as inappropriate content unless they were clicked on.

Stay away from You Tube at work, unless you think its a relevant work video. That eats up bandwidth, and there are reports in all of the monitoring software that shows who is using the most bandwidth. If you're not using it for business reasons, it looks bad. Most companies allow for minimal personal use during business hours, but if you're doing it for 2 hours a day, thats a different story.

Even if you're hanging out in discussions on TR, they can see that. They can see what discussion you were in. If it isn't work related, thats not good. My best advice is don't do anything on the company web you don't want your employer to see. You're not going to beat the software.

Your company will allow business related access. Instead of surfing the web for it, try signing up for newsletters that are sent to you with the content you want. They are usually strictly technical.

My bottom line advice is don't do anything on the company internet that your employer wouldn't approve of. No FB. No You Tube. Keep it to minimal personal use, business oriented, but always remember, its all logged, so think about that click. Thats what I do. I do my personal stuff outside of the office. Don't want people knowing my business.

AV

by santeewelding

That was frank and to the point. I am not directly affected, but some of my correspondents are. I learn from you how not to compromise them.

by jck

It's not those. Some cheapy system.

It's more an issue of the network guy not taking the time to setup a custom default config. Just letting the standard settings do, and apply any requests he gets to change business-related stuff.

I just read tech sites when I have no work. Go to my bank account once in a while. That's about it.

by tonythetiger

based on faulty reporting such as this. I eventually helped him get his job back, with about $80,000 in back pay, but it cost me years of intense scrutiny... that eventually played a part in my decision to retire.

by tonythetiger

their reports had him going to sites on days he wasn't even at work, and the same sites at the exact same times (to the second!) every day... they should have known something was messed up.

by av .

I ran into something like that once. Someone signed a person I worked with up for a porn site as a prank, and it took over their PC. Malware was in there too, but the intruder lockout function in Windows saved me.

AV

by jamesrl

My boss came into my office with a worried look. He asked me what I was doing at 2 AM. It was a bot that would track everything I did on the internet and then send it to an ad company who then targeted me for spam. Sent a huge amoutn of data at the same time every night. Took seconds to fix once we identified it.

by john.a.wills

What's objectionable about adult sites? Aren't most of the participants in TR adults? So is TR an adult site? Well, it's not a pornographic site, which is what jck was implicitly being accused of accessing, so why wasn't he explicitly accused?

As for pornographic sites, the url www.couragerc.org, which is meant for a site for sexual inverts who refuse to be gay, was once hijacked by a non-gay porn site, so that someone doing something non-professional but fairly legitimate might get accused of something he was psychologically incapable of.

by jck

The were "questionable"...like...every Youtube video being blocked...and called "R Rated".

However, some tutorial videos are only available through Youtube. And, they are embedded into webpages and ABP won't block them if it doesn't see them first.

Hence, I get false hits even if I have blocker software.

It's just silly. The big boss says it's understood and they know I'm not trying to access bad content.

But, I still watch out.

by cmiller5400

I use Firefox with Adblock Plus. I have a custom block list that will block most of the stuff that gets Websensed here (shopping, youtube, myspace, facebook etc). Seems to work well as I don't see that dreaded "blocked by..." page much.

by jck

But, the firewall puts the blocked message in where the video, pic, etc., would be on the rendered page. I don't get a chance to block.

I'm not worried anymore. I do good work, and I get projects done so fast, my supervisor doesn't get to them for days...or even one case...weeks.

If they want to be rid of me because I'm reading about OSes, motherboards, CPUs, RAM, and other tech info...so be it. I'll find a job who wants someone who'll stay busy when they're not in a project.

by seanferd

Together, they are almost magical.

But it won't matter if the main site domain you are visiting is miscategorized, and this happens quite a lot, particularly with some services. And, of course, it is one thing to play whitelist-only, but to make erroneous claims about the content of blocked sites is a whole other thing.

And these people aren't looking at what site you actually visited, but are just going on some categorization? Poor show, I say. Really poor show.

So, other people aren't routinely accused of visiting "bad" sites? Or are they "just checking" because you are "new"?

by jck

A couple of the technical sites I go to embed things like Youtube and Vimeo into their websites as part of article headers on their front page.

So when I go to the front page, each embedded Youtube video is counted as an "R Rated" hit by their filter. So if you visit the front page more than once, each time it requests the embedded item, it counts +1.

In a week, I had 70-some. It was probably because they had several videos on their front page. I told the boss "Even AMD publishes videos to Youtube." My big boss is understanding. I stated I wasn't going to anything inappropriate, I was reading technical information that can be used in doing my job or assisting other IT staff with theirs.

I'm not going to worry about it. If they get rid of me, so be it. I'll talk to an attorney. I'm going to technical sites and reading tech info and learning about what the new things are and what is trending so I am better able to perform my duties and advise others.

I guess I could just sit around, read newspapers, talk on my cell phone, or go in the employee lounge for an hour and sleep...like I have seen others do.

If someone who wants to improve their knowledge in relation to their job is bad, I want them to fire me. I'd rather not work for an employer who is so worried about me being busy, but doesn't give me enough work to do so...even when I go and ask for it.

by seanferd

I think you probably have the best attitude about this. If learning and staying up to date on the tech gets you fired due to a bad system, it's their loss.

I just have a hard time understanding how systems so poorly created or run survive or even thrive as they do.

by jck

1) Like where I used to work, it fulfills a purpose for management: a tool which lets them assert their authority. Management at my former job used the network monitoring/filtering as an "ace in the hole" when they wanted to get rid of someone. You never heard of people being disciplined/terminated for going to buy.com or anything during normal times. However when they needed to layoff people or wanted to get rid of someone, they would request the network monitor logs for "review" and look for dirt.

2) It's a tool they use here at my current job as a gold star for management to look like they are upholding a professional/moral compass on the job to the public. The bad part is that people like me, who are using their system to view technically-oriented websites when their boss doesn't provide them work, are labelled without real cause as having done something wrong...and it's mainly because the network admin hasn't gone through and manually configured the filtering/monitoring settings.

For instance, there is a global keyword block that (if it is in any URL not given an exception) will stop you from going to parts of sites such as Microsoft, HP, etc. In fact, I can't go to Microsoft's website that tells about Windows 8 because it's URL has contains a "verboten" keyword.

Basically, tools to ensure productivity have to be used productively. Putting any random dog outside and yelling "guard my house!" doesn't make them a guard dog.

Unfortunately, those in management who accept lackluster systems administration will suffer an ill fate. Their network "guard dogs" will harass the wrong people, and eventually they will get intruded upon because they didn't properly prepare their defenses.

What really burns me up is that I got told "just tell the network admin what needs to be unblocked". I almost felt like saying "should I go configure it for him too?". It's not that hard to go into the Rules for the filter and give certain main domains total exception...like microsoft.com, msdn.com, etc. Oh well, I guess my bosses are more forgiving of lack of job thoroughness than I am.

Thank you for your comments about my attitude. I will just handle things as they come. If they begin to accuse me wrongly, I will just get a pitbull of an attorney and go after them.

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