Shoutbox

No, it isn't possible to watch live conversations between other people without them being aware of your presence. If one of the conversation participants was using your system, you can afterwards read the original .xsl or the Messenger Plus! .txt logs stored on your PC.

The Big Sister project proved eavesdropping on MSN Messenger isn't entirely impossible, ......

The following is quoted from mess.be


anyone has any pointers on this??

As far as I know unless they are using a computer on a LAN connected to your server\router it is impossible...
A "sniffer" is actually possible but then it goes into using Trojans\hacking which goes into illegal stuff. In any case, even if it isn't illegal, it is a breach of privacy. Unless of course you're a boss investigating chat's being misused on your LAN.

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Originally posted by Anubis
In any case, even if it isn't illegal, it is a breach of privacy. Unless of course you're a boss investigating chat's being misused on your LAN.

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Surely its still an invasion of privacy to read other people's chats without permission, even if an employee was abusing the system?

If that was the case, surely the privaledges of an employer only allow them to deny you access to Messenger?

yeah there isnt many ways, its about privacy
my mate brought his pc to a lan party and shared his My Documents folder, his convo logs were in one of it's subfolders and some person was goint through them, and he majorly got pissed off.

quote:

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Originally posted by Jeronimo

Surely its still an invasion of privacy to read other people's chats without permission, even if an employee was abusing the system?

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Not imo, if the boss allows you to use MSN Messenger he is giving you a privilege, if you abuse that privilege he should be allowed to look into how a privilege he allows is being used\abused...

quote:

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Originally posted by Anubis
Not imo, if the boss allows you to use MSN Messenger he is giving you a privilege, if you abuse that privilege he should be allowed to look into how a privilege he allows is being used\abused...

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I'm still going to disagree with you I'm afraid

I think that chats should remain private. Its a privilege that I receive mail in the morning, but I wouldn't expect that its ok for the postman to open my letters.

If an employer suspects a problem with MSN being abused, he would be within his rights to block access to the service of course. In my old job, we were allowed to use the company internet connection for personal use, as long as it was after 5pm. To prevent abuse, a system was put in place to prevent it being used for personal use until then. I would not have expected to submit my history files for review.

There is a certain amount of repsonsibility on the employee to use the service correctly. If he was abusing this privilege, then I submit that they are not suitable for such a position.

If the policy* of the company is that your logs can be reviewed to check if you're not abusing the system, then it is not a breach of privacy... period.

* fine print on your contact, or even a simple public notice to the employees.

quote:

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Originally posted by CookieRevised
If the policy* of the company is that your logs can be reviewed to check if you're not abusing the system, then it is not a breach of privacy... period.

* fine print on your contact, or even a simple public notice to the employees.

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Yes I would agree with this, however the original suggestion was to use a sniffer on a LAN to monitor employees. If the monitoring process is not a transparent thing, and people are warned about it, then yes its not an invasion of privacy.

Has anyone worked for a company where Messenger is accepted as a business tool? Would be great to chat to clients all day

[offtopic]

quote:

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Originally posted by Jeronimo
Has anyone worked for a company where Messenger is accepted as a business tool? Would be great to chat to clients all day

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I know someone who works at the financial administration department of a big city. She's chatting all day ... Business tool?, not exactly, but nobody cares as long as the paychecks are done.... (she also has Plus! on her computer there)
[/offtopic]

quote:

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Originally posted by Jeronimo

Has anyone worked for a company where Messenger is accepted as a business tool? Would be great to chat to clients all day

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I've heard of Windows Messenger being used for chatting, not to clients, but to other divisions of the company...