OK, you want honesty here. I feel that I sometimes have an over-developed sense of integrity and honesty. Security training will do that to you. Having your own privacy invaded will too (both I have experienced).

The only place I step over that line is when it comes to the safety of my daughter. I use tools to ensure that she is not communicating with a pediphile online. That could be seen as an invasion of her privacy (Mike B sees it that way), but I see it as my responsibility as a parent in today's world. I do not read her diary. I give her the freedom to go online where she wishes, but I monitor it. Until she makes a bad decision she is allowed to make her own decisions. To be fair, there will be some decisions she may regret, but she will hopefully learn (but not get hurt) by her mistakes. I am more concerned with her safety though when it comes to monitoring her online usage. I would never consider doing even that with anyone else. Not even another family member. Parental responsibility is the only thing which allows me to do even that.

Having written that, I would never consider invading someone else's privacy intentionally unless my daughter's life was on the line. If that were the case, there is no line I would not cross.



>>>>>>>>>In a sense, it was an act of war.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>Peter, it was not an "act of war". That is a ridiculous thing to say. She felt bullied, so she did something dishonest and PETTY! It would be nice to say that we are all professionals here, and all being in the IT trade we know what is right and what is wrong technologically, and this was wrong. There is no excuses or gray area... It is black and white WRONG!
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Let us suppose you and I are colleagues in the same company and we are less than friends, to put it mildly. Actually, I have accused you of many things and have even tried to persuade our chief to fire you. You have discovered this and feel offended by me. Even more, you have the feeling that I am talking about you behind your back with others. Our desks are in the same room and you notice that my computer is still unlocked. You know I won't be back within an hour.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Will you, or won't you try to have a look in my Inbox and Outbox of Outlook?
>>>>>>
>>>>>>No I would not, but now I know that you would.
>>>>>
>>>>>I could easilly answer here "no, I wouldn't", but let me be honest. I probably would, yes. Actually, I remember having done a similar thing once.
>>>>>
>>>>>But an other thing then: I think you're dishonest here. You're giving a socially desirable answer only.
>>>>
>>>>I'm giving the only answer I can. Just because you, and perhaps a very large majority, would act that way is not to say everyone would.
>>>
>>>Okay, I can live with that. But are you also implicitly saying here that you won't ever do such a thing, no matter what happened beforehand?
>>
>>Nobody can answer questions about the future. The best answer is that I would hope in the future to act according to the integrity I've tried to live up to in the past.
>
>The future behavior is all that matters here. Testing someone's integrity is testing what can be expected in the future. The question on the form might be: Can we expect integrity by you in the future? Your answer here, although honest, would not make people feel comfortable.
>
>I wrote: 'no matter what happened beforehand'. Let me rephrase: 'even if you appear to be dealing with immoral, perhaps even criminal people'. You won't peek?