• PC World
• » Security

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Some of the nation's top judges, who set policy for the federal courts, are gearing to take a stand on whether judges and other court employees should have their PCs and Internet use monitored at work.

The issue is being raised at the twice-annual Judicial Conference here this week. The judges' decision could affect snooping practices for other government employees and, perhaps, workers in general.

The topic is going to a vote Tuesday by a panel of judges presided over by Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist. They are reviewing a policy on the use of software on federal court PCs that can track what Web sites employees visit as well as monitor their e-mail and other digital correspondence.

The Administration Office of the Courts began monitoring employee computers, including those of federal district and appellate judges, more than a year ago. Such monitoring is similar to computer use policies at corporations and organizations around the world. According to a study by advocacy group the Privacy Foundation, an estimated 14 million employees in the United States--or one-third of the nation's wired workforce--have their Internet or e-mail use under surveillance while at work.

Judges Protest

Despite its widespread use, judges from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and from District Courts have been vocal opponents of the software. They argue that its discrete use in the federal court system infringes on employee privacy and is a security risk for judges who use their e-mail to send confidential court documents. The largest of the 13 federal circuits, the Ninth Circuit encompasses nine western states and two territories.

In protest of the software early this year, top judges from that circuit ordered roughly 10,000 employees to disarm the monitoring software on their computers. The judges also pushed the issue to the Judicial Committee on Automation and Technology, a subcommittee of the Judicial Conference that will raise the issue Tuesday.

Since the Ninth Circuit Court judges came out in opposition of the monitoring tactics, other critics in the courts have come forward. Edith H. Jones, a judge for the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, sent a letter to the Judicial Committee on Automation and Technology criticizing the manner in which federal court computers are snooped on, according to documents obtained by The Censorware Project, a group of Internet privacy advocates.

Jones wrote in a letter last month that if the Judicial Committee supports Internet monitoring, it "is the equivalent of sanctioning wiretapping of telephones or searches of office files.

"No one condones using government computers to download pornography, to gamble, to conduct personal profit-making business during office hours, or to achieve illegal or immoral goals," Jones says. "But to subject every judicial employee to random snooping and wiretapping of Internet communications is a drastic measure that should only be justified by proof of the most serious and systemic misuse."

Privacy Violation?

The Electronic Privacy Information Center, a Washington, D.C., computer lobbying group, has also come out against computer monitoring, arguing that it may be a violation of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986. The group's executive director, Marc Rotenberg, sent a letter last week to the Judicial Committee challenging computer snooping in the federal courts, according to documents available on the group's Web site.

The Administrative Office of the Courts, which implemented the monitoring program with software from Websense, has also chimed in with its own recommendations. In a letter to top federal judges, court administrators have asked for further study on computer snooping and requested the Federal Conference postpone implementing an official policy.

Lewis Maltby, president of the National Workrights Institute, who reviewed the letter, says it is a win for privacy rights in the workplace.

"They haven't decided to drop the idea, but at least it may be postponed until they think about it more carefully," he says.

• See more like this:
• privacy,
• security,
• snoop,
• monitoring,
• tracking,
• judges,
• judicial