Facebook logoHmmm, when you turn up at work in front of the computer, just how many minutes did it take for you to truly get into the routine of things? What I mean by that is, the amount of time required for you to boot up up your machine, return from the pantry with your favorite beverage in hand, checking your Facebook account and Twitter updates, reading up on daily sports news, before opening the work window just as your boss walks in fashionably late. Well, things might change in the future, as actions such as Facebook checking, going through eBay listings, or surfing non-work related sites could be rated as a federal offense.

A couple of Boston College professors who authored a paper on how a broad interpretation of the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) could eventually be used to criminalize the routine behavior that many folks with a computer at their disposal while at work indulge in. The First, Fifth, Seventh and Eleventh Circuit Courts of Appeal interpreted that a breach of a company’s computer policy for example, would be a ban on accessing dating sites as well as social media, as that would end up as a violation of the CFAA. I guess this is not going to be enforced even if it is the law, considering how the spirit of it would definitely cause an uproar amongst millions of office drones.

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