Re: Networking in Africa...

[David Schwartz <davids () webmaster com>]

On Tue, 03 Dec 2002 10:27:49 -0500, David Charlap wrote:

> I don't know what (if any) legal right of privacy is in Nigeria, but I
> would suspect that a publicly posted policy notice (like "management
> reserves the right to monitor all traffic" and a strict TOS policy)
> should mitigate any legal concerns about doing this.

        My experience has been that it is illegal in most countries and generally
considered unethical to intercept the communications of third parties without
their knowledge. Notifying people that you reserve the right to intercept
their communications does not provide them with the knowledge that their
communications are being intercepted. Knowing that your communications might
be intercepted or that someone has the right to intercept them is not the
same as knowing that they *are* being intercepted.

        If you want to do this, your notification has to be explicit. I suggest,
"You have no privacy here. Everything you are doing is being logged." Notice
that when you tell people the truth, it starts looking less like what you
wanted to do in the first place.

        I think it's obvious that a wishy-washy "mangement reserves the right to
monitor all traffic" is an attempt to deceive your customers. I strongly
recommend not doing that.

        DS