Re: UK trade union the TUC ?????
Everyone knows Tuc is a cheesy biscuit, and massively inferior to the glory that is the Ritz biscuit and its smaller but tastier cousin, the Mini Ritz.
OT: We have to retain e-mails, internet connection records, phone logs, everything at work. That's due to compliance and it's perfectly acceptable. We don't monitor keystrokes and our firewall only blocks P2P connections and child porn and that's because that's a requirement from our ISP. Anything else is allowed through (and where I work there are some users with legitimate requirements to view porn, the lucky bastards).
What we don't do is expose any of our records to anyone unless there's a) a very good reason and b) written authorisation from both the Director of ICT and the Director of the employee's department. And even then our Security & Standards Manager is able to refuse anything he disagrees with.
We do get the odd manager (aren't they all odd?) asking for web history or e-mail access for one of their staff. They get short shrift. My favourite response to one request (manager was concerned employee was spending too much time browsing the internet) was "This isn't an IT issue. Manage your staff better. If they're getting the job done who gives a shit how much time they spend online?"
With regards to monitoring staff outside of work, I'd kick off massively if I discovered that happening. One manager admitted he checks people's Facebook profiles before interviews and won't hire them if he see's anything he doesn't like. He also stated that if they don't have a Facebook profile he doesn't trust them because "What have they got to hide?"
My response was "Everything. Or rather, I've got nothing about my personal life I want to expose to any twat with a net connection." I've never had any form of social tedia profile and he'd hired me 2 weeks before that so I knew he was full of shit.