State employees are being advised that effective immediately, they are prohibited from accessing their office webmail or other data on the state’s computer network from any “personal device,” including a personal computer, cell phone, or tablet. Employees will also be prohibited from doing any of their state business using a personal device, or storing any state data on a personal storage device, such as a thumb drive or portable hard drive.
The policy was described in a notice sent to employees in at least one state department this week, according to a copy made available to this site.
It isn’t clear how many state employees will be impacted, or whether the policies will apply to the University of Hawaii, which has outsourced its email to Google Mail and manages its own internal computer network. However, the new rules will obviously create a host of issues and problems for state workers in many types of jobs.
There is no indication whether there were any consultations with public employee unions that are normally very sensitive to administrative edicts that impact working conditions of their members.
Word about the dramatic new restrictions is trickling down from the office of State Chief Information Officer Sonny Bhagowalia, and were apparently approved earlier this month following several years of discussion by the Information Privacy and Security Council, which he chairs. However, there is no reference to the new policy or its justification on the website of the Office of Information and Management Technology, and recent agendas of the Information Privacy and Security Council contain no indication that such a dramatic policy shift was being considered.
Bhagowalia’s office is reportedly still trying to come up with ways to allow employees to get work done while away from their offices. In the meantime, declaring the benefits of digital mobility off-limits to state employees can be expected to dramatically impact many jobs.
The policy change appears to be driven by two concerns. First, apparently any outside access to the state data network is thought to increase the risk of outside “computer attacks.” A second significant factor is fear of “electronic discovery,” or ediscovery, where internal documents are required to be disclosed to parties involved in civil lawsuits with the state. If emails are read or downloaded onto personal phones or computers, those devices can be searched for documents relevant to the litigation, making disclosure more likely, an idea that apparently strikes fear in the hearts of state administrators and lawyers.
One recent embarrassing example occurred in 2012, when emails and other correspondence were made public which suggested the office of the late Sen. Dan Inouye put political pressure on a state hearing officer presiding over a contested case involving the University of Hawaii’s push for a new solar telescope on Haleakala.
I’m sure we’ll be hearing a lot more about this as word of the new policy spreads.
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Government secrecy trumps efficiency. Again.
I always said those computer thingies would cause trouble one day. Let’s ban them now so we can avoid possible embarrassment of State workers.
Wow! No working from home, I take it?
If the policy is applied to UH, then both administrators and professors would have to do all their job-related computer work in their office rather than at home or on an airplane or while traveling for several days to a professional conference. Just imagine how backlogged the administrators would be! And what about an adjunct or part-time instructor who has only a shared office with no computer, or who is teaching only an online course or televised distance-learning course? Such an instructor would have to go in to the office to respond to student questions or to read student essays or to submit final grades or self-evaluations or goals and objectives for next year’s professional development.
I guess the solution would be to provide every UH employee from Deans all the way down to adjuncts with a UH laptop restricted to UH business. That’s how the federal government handles things. Several years ago when I worked one week per month for the Census Bureau doing interviews and gathering data from people in their homes, the Census Bureau loaned me a laptop and told me never to use it for internet or e-mail or any other personal use. And when I transmitted data to the big computer in Los Angeles overnight through a special modem (turned itself on while I was sleeping), I think they invaded the laptop to verify that I had not used it for anything except Census work. Big Brother was watching me! But hey, they paid me $12 per hour plus mileage, so I guess it was worth it!
Gee–does this mean that state employees will not be able to access the hawaii.gov websites to find out about pending legislation and other legislative activities, while the general public can? And what about the Campaign Spending Commission’s excellent searchable website–only available to non-employees? These are just two off the top of my head, but I know there are many other purposes for which the public accesses state computers systems for information, registration, etc. Looks like this policy needs a LOT more thought–the “several years of discussion” have not begun to deal with the ridiculous implications of this policy! In any case, it makes me glad I’m no longer a state employee!
I think you may be using the term “State employee” too broadly, Ian.
It appears your usage is synonymous with “executive branch” employees, given the reference to the Chief Information Officer, Sonny Bhagowalia. To my knowledge, no such edict has been sent to employees of the co-equal judicial or legislative branches.
So, while — numerically — the executive branch has the greatest number of “State employees,” the two are not one and the same. Similarly, I tend to think the edict does not apply to UH or OHA.
Ian’s post says, “State employees are being advised….,” not, “All state employees…”
For the folks in the higher levels of management, it will be a major hindrance, if practices at the City level are any indication. All the top managers regularly check their e-mail, calendars, etc. from their smart phones
Legislators and staff may soon be impacted by this policy. If they thought testimony from the departments was late before, I think this will make it worse – even worse than when it was during hard copy testimony days. At least then, executive staff could try to work on finalizing/approving via email overnight, ahead of a hearing – and then print it the copies in the morning. Approvals can entail hundreds of department staff, depending on the size of the department and its numbers of programs, as the program staff scramble to craft testimony and then garner their department head’s approval so they can submit it to the Legislature. Hit repeat on this process for every single bill the Legislature hears, then you understand how the departments mobilize to the Legislature, and how this new policy may ripple and delay response capacity to Legislators. With the option for after-hour virtual drafting and approval coordination removed, Legislators may see their department testify in person – but without the benefit of their formal written testimony ahead or even at the time of their hearing.
Hope they will strictly enforce this and especially monitor what goes on at AMHD run mental health clinics where due to a shortage of computers, practicum students will often do their work from home on personal computer, save confidential patient information on a USB thumb drive, and sometimes lose the thumb drive.
While I think the new policy goes overboard, some rules are needed. Portable devices are used all over the place, and people seem to forget when they’re in a public setting that others around them are exposed to information that is obviously confidential.
This is a foolish, rigid over-reaction against which both reasonable people, and the flow of technological innovation, will rebel.
Tell me again the qualifications of the top IT people in the state? Not just the “Tsar” (aha, part of the problem. Stars have arbitrary power, by definition and do not need to gain approval from a broader, representative body before issuing edicts).
What about the OTHER, more competent, IT professionals working for the state?
I wrote “Tsars have arbitrary power.” My iPad auto-“corrected” that to “Stars.” Proving even brilliant people need to learn to be careful in mastering the technology!