Personal stuff at work
I agree with the above suggestions of: leave home at home. Basically, anything you do on or with company property (which includes computers and networks) is subject to monitoring and archival. You have
no privacy. Moreover, if you have a laptop running company software, it may be logging traffic on any network it's connected to, so be careful about allowing on onto your home networks.
If it's company policy not to allow personal surfing and the policy is just given a wink and a nod under normal circumstances I would still avoid it.
A wise policy! Acting otherwise is simply giving them rope to hang you with. (Not that they need any, in most places.)
If you are keeping a journal on the computer, keep it on a floppy disk and take it home with you every night. Keeping it on the hard drive, even with a password, is asking for trouble.
It goes much farther than this; as others have mentioned, there is all kinds of snooping software (and hardware) that is specifically designed to log what you do, without your knowing it. In fact, there's whole mini-industry that has sprung up around this, catering to nosy bosses, parents, and spouses everywhere. These systems are made to be installed, montitored, and removed with a minimal signature. For a high-profile example, see the case of the FBI sneaking in a keystroke logger to nab a mobster:
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,40541,00.html
I realize that a policy of "At work, do nothing personal" isn't always practical, but it is a good ideal. As far as the journal goes, keeping a little notebook has advantages (their key loggers and screen capture software can't see it), but it's still vulnerable to interception if you ever leave it unattended. A locked desk drawer is not sufficient protection. Furthermore, if they really have been watching you, they probably know that you visit THR and what your handle is, so it's quite possible that they'll be on the lookout for a journal.
For myself, I keep personal traffic to a minimum when I'm in an environment like that. When I do get the urge to check my e-mail, make a plane reservation, see if a check has cleared, etc., I use my personal laptop, which a) relays all traffic (including DNS lookups!) through an encrypted tunnel to an external host, b) is locked at any time that I'm not actively using it, and c) has no company software on it. They can of course still use some fancy-schmancy pinhole camera to watch my screen, or install a key logger without interrupting the running software (possible if they use high-tech hardware, or with software if the aforementioned pinhole camera catches a copy of my password). That's an acceptable risk for me. I'm not going up against the FBI, and all they'd see is the occasional e-mail from Mom or me checking the evening traffic report.
(It's not that I have anything to hide; I'm just not going to make life any easier than it already is for some information-hungry control freak who wants to know if I favor boxers or briefs, or how much toilet paper I go through in a day.)
This is what I keep most in mind - These are your coworkers, not your friends.
That is my mantra! Be courteous, be professional, but don't expect anything from your coworkers beyond their courtesy and professionalism in return. They may be friendly, but they are
not your friends.
-PH
err... I mean you either let them get away with it, or you do something about it. Every time I've let someone get away with it, there's been a follow up... 