Thread: Worried about my company trying to report me to authorities for Private Trackers use

I work in NY (USA) for a 20 person female owned company and last week a few of my coworkers that have been there longer than I have been acting and saying things that I am picking up on that indicate that they may be on to my Private Tracker activity.
I have never downloaded at work (I"m not that stupid) nor does the IT Admin allow the rights to allow you to install uTorrent etc.

I might have pissed off a people since I do not converse and not conversational with the other 3 guys that I kind of report to. One of the guys helps the IT Admin out because the IT guy does not come in every day until 3pm EST on average.

I had a talk with my manager on Thursday and I reminded him of a issue last week where the IT guy and one of the "3 guys" that I talking about approached me with the femaile owner of the company because I was emailing myself 30 mb personal files (for my hobby as a Audio Tech/Audiophile interests on research into audio technology for speaker systems etc), and they thought I was emailing to my personal yahoo account work related information and they wanted to make sure that I was "happy in my position" at the company and that I wasn't planning on leaving the company because they all said they want me to stay. The guys apologized over and over and over from their hearts, once I showed them that the files were my hobby (Audio file techn research).



Then the conversation continued with my manager in his office where I asked if "any of the other guys have issues with me working at the company". His response was an enthusiastic "yes" that they like me and that I am a strong worker and that "The guys think it would be bad if you were thinking of leaving the company, which is why they approached you last week when they thought you were emailing yourself information to go to another job and to make sure you are happy." I then asked my manager if they "have anything else that would worry them about anything that they see or hear from me (to feel him out about his knowledge about my private tracker log ons during the day), and his response was "Is there something you want to tell me" (in a childish way like he really had no clue about my private tracker activity and part of me wants to believe him).

The point is, what is the worst that can happen with the authorities???

I don't give a shit if they fire me because I hate the company and could easily have multiple offers from other companies instantly if I got fired.

As I said, next week I have to feel out the people there, and have some private conversations with a few different people or I even feel like just "coming clean" with the owner and the IT Admin in the same room saying that "a friend of mine introduced me to some private trackers that I do not log into any more when I found out that this activity is being repressed by the authorities and I had no idea that you could possibly be doing something contraversial with copy right" and that I don't log on any more etc.

I've been logging onto Private Trackers for 3.5 years there since I started working at the company by the way.

Please let me know "if someone was out to get you with a viscious drive to get you in trouble" with private trackers, what do you do? How far can someone go? (One of the guys I'm referring to that works at the IT Admin assistant is married to a County Prosecutor and his father is a lawyer as well...

If I were to talk to the owner of the company with the IT Admin about "My past activity ,which is not the present" (because I have not logged on or even visited any kind of tracker for 1 week now), what approach could I use to feel them out or come clean about it, or should I just delete my hard drive on the personal computer at work and quit?

If you don't use bittorrent at work then there's no issue. The police aren't going to raid your house for downloading movies based on a tip off from a member of the public.

I would not worry about this at all. No-one is going to launch an investigation into you, and certainly not a criminal investigation. Do not torrent at work, or using any work equipment, as this could get you fired if they wanted to get rid of you, but it sounds like they don't.

I really think you are worrying about nothing. I mean the owner of the company thought you were thinking about leaving, and talked to you personally, to persuade you not to. Does that sound like the behaviour of people out to get you?

Do not talk to your company about your torrenting activity. They probably wouldn't care, but you would gain absolutely nothing by discussing it with them, so don't.

I personally have never seen people care much about torrenting, everybody that knows me know I do it and heavily and don't really care much for it. Don't worry about it man, a criminal investigation just because you download movies or whatever? cmon be realistic, do you really think something something so big could come from such a small offense? Don't do anything bitorrent related at work and you won't have any issues

In short, stop using trackers from work. As others have already suggested if you stop doing so, it's not much of an issue anymore. Past that, sayocean is right that authorities are unlikely to have much interest in your torrenting activity unless it is on an epic scale. Personal use is usually the target of industry interests.

Nevertheless why take the risk? Notwithstanding that you don't care about this job, I don't see anything good coming out of it. Nor would I volunteer details about previous usage. It's unlikely to smooth things over - I'd think more likely to make them look deeper or at best, ignore your admission, while setting the thought in their mind that you've done something "wrong" in the past. Why hand them ammunition? Where is the upside to an unsolicited admission?

In many places the courts have ruled that employers can look into your email, internet usage, etc that you do from a work account. Surveys suggest that upwards of 75% of companies may spy on your computer use at work (source). Lots of people have lost their jobs over questionable use, but it is rare that authorities would pursue you for something like copyright infringement.

If you are serious about leaving the company on your own initiative, it's highly unlikely that they will pursue anything after that. You're gone at that point, so baring the thought that they think you embezzled or an epic vendetta it's not worth the effort to pursue an ex-employee. If you must continue to access trackers from work, and I'm not suggesting that you should. Then at least consider looking into using your personal PC and a VPN from work to obscure where you are going on the net. But seriously.. the best advice is simply don't do anything personal from work that might be construed as improper or unlawful. Most employers will spy on your usage to some degree. So just wait until you get home to login to you trackers.

without knowing what the company does etc its hard to say exactly but id say they where more worried about you emailing things from work back home thinking it was client files/details/trade secrets/whatever else which would explain the whole thinking you was considering leaving (taking a bunch of clients with you) the only time i would say that the company might care is if your working for one of the labels or copyright companys/lawyers even tho its been shown alot of the time they all do it themselves anyway

the IT department im sure would be able to know what sites you have visited and if they had a problem they would have contacted you way before now (you say you have done this for 3yrs) but at the same time whats the point in visiting those sites while your at work if your not downloading from there

if you wanna make sure your safe and still wanna see what new uploads are on the sites get a RSS reader for your phone and check it out that way... hell i connect my phone to works wifi and download to my phone with transmission :P

remember visiting a site or even downloading a torrent is perfectly legal even using that torrent is legal as far as criminal law goes these are civil crimes we are talking about and the only people who really can take you to court over it are the owners of the content and their reps