Salon has an article today about increased monitoring of computer activity of employees at many companies. While the thought of my employer logging which Web sites I visit or reading my email is pretty disturbing, it certainly wouldn’t surprise me if they did it. I do think that employers should have to disclose to their employees whether they monitor their communications. The author of the article says, “anyone with an e-mail address knows it’s next to impossible to keep your in-box free of dirty jokes and sexually explicit JPEGs.” I’ve gotten my fair share of dirty jokes over the years (although not so many any more), but I’ve never received a sexually explicit JPEG via email. Maybe I hang out with the wrong crowd. In this day and age, there are so many free email services out there that using your work address for personal email is just foolish. Just sign up for Yahoo! Mail and exchange all your personal email there, it’s a lot safer. And if you’re checking out porn sites on the job, well, don’t say I didn’t warn you.