Back in my early days online, the online community to which I belonged—the WELL—had a simple slogan: “You own your own words.” They must not have been thinking about people who wrote using their employer’s computers. Jim Horton points to a story on C|Net about a Washington State man who used his office computer to search for pornography. Police seized the computer and used what they found to charge him with 50 counts of possessing child pornography. He was sentenced to four years in prison. He appealed, claiming the seizure of the computer violated his rights, but a 3-0 appeals court decision said the only thing police needed was the permission of the company.

As Jim notes, pornography isn’t a concern for most readers of these PR-focused blogs. Says Jim:

“...but you could be writing unflattering e-mails about your bosses to friends, or you could be storing confidential data on your hard drive that should not be on your machine. Either way, you have put yourself in jeopardy, if you have done so…The old rule still applies. If you won’t want it exposed, don’t write it in the first place. PR practitioners often handle sensitive data, and it is easy to become lackadaisical about it.”