Not a real problem

I follow almost 40 blogs and luckily, I can check out new posts for most of them in between work tasks.  However, I work for a global law firm with electronic security measures that seem to increase exponentially.  From one day to the next I never know which blogs will be blocked.  Well, not exactly BLOCKED in that I can’t go there.  For example, when I click over to read Doobster’s latest post at Mindful Digressions my computer opens a warning window that the site has triggered the ScanSafe protection employed by the firm.  It will allow me to click through to see the site, BUT the fine print advises that by doing so I agree the firm can monitor my computer activity.

I would be surprised if the firm isn’t already watching my online activity to some degree.  A secretary was dismissed awhile back after her frequent visits to Facebook allowed a virus to infect the computer she used.  Obviously they have tracking of some sort in place to keep tabs on what we do online.  But in all my years here nothing has ever been said about my online activity.  So apparently what I’ve been doing is within the bounds of acceptability.  The ScanSafe protocol is relatively new, introduced after our local firm was taken over by the monolith we now work for.  In the beginning, Accuradio and Pandora triggered it and I clicked through anyway, after querying our IT people about it.  The sensitivity was changed or something because neither online radio site activates ScanSafe now.  But unless it is strictly work-related I try not to tempt fate by ignoring the ScanSafe alerts.

This puts a crimp in my blog-reading as I mentioned earlier.  There are several blogs I follow which I really enjoy but cannot see at work.  I’ll see in my reader that there’s a new post by someone I like reading and sadly I have to wait until I’m on my way home to read those, IF I remember to go back.  And in the interim, other new posts are popping up on the list and moving the ones I’ve had to postpone further down making it more likely I’ll miss something really good.

I understand this is a minor hiccup in my day; there are plenty of problems out there much worse than this and I suppose I should try to put it in perspective.

[pause for musing]

Nah, I like whining too much.