Can work trace yahoo emails ?

stephenliverpool1

Hi all,

I have friend that has sent some silly ems via her yahoo email account. None were rude or offensive; I have seen them so I know. Trouble is her manager has involved the company IT team. Can anyone confirm whether they can trace these yahoo messages back to her IP address.

I don't think that they can but would be grateful if someone could confirm.

Thanks

macman

They will certainly be able to see that she has been accessing her private webmail account in work time, if that is what you mean.
Presumably that is the issue, rather than the content of any emails themselves?

Strider590

I think more info is required.

stephenliverpool1

Hi,

She has used her private yahoo email account, which she accessed whilst at home, to express views on her line manager anonymously.

Can they trace this back to her home IP address ?

I hope it makes sense now. She won't do it in future. She has been silly TBH.

StuC75

Does her email address or username identify her - or be known to others trying to pry into an internet forum? or any information divulged identify any people or companies or make it possible to eliminate others from being the sources?..

How would the company IT department know what her home ip address was? was any work equipment used to post the information?

What is in the staff handbook regarding conduct? At worse it could be seen as bringing the companies name into disrepute \ misconduct if can be clearly identified..

Not sure the IT Department would have that level of personnel to undertake such a level of searching the internet..

stephenliverpool1

StuC75 wrote: »

Does her email address or username identify her - or be known to others trying to pry into an internet forum? or any information divulged identify any people or companies or make it possible to eliminate others from being the sources?..

How would the company IT department know what her home ip address was? was any work equipment used to post the information?

What is in the staff handbook regarding conduct? At worse it could be seen as bringing the companies name into disrepute \ misconduct if can be clearly identified..

Not sure the IT Department would have that level of personnel to undertake such a level of searching the internet..

Thanks. You have confirmed what I expected. Her email address does not identify her and no work equipment was used to post the info.

I will tell her to ignore her manager involving the IT team.

SamDude

How did the manager find out in the first place - were the images sent to him/her from the Yahoo account?

stephenliverpool1

SamDude wrote: »

How did the manager find out in the first place - were the images sent to him/her from the Yahoo account?

No images involved.

He just responded to her private yahoo email address after she gave him some constructive anonymous feedback.

DigForVictory

How to put this? If she's annoyed a private employer enough, they can pay for some pretty through searches.
If she's annoyed a civil service line manager enough, then her odds of staying anonymous drop further.
Much depends on just how brassed off her boss is. Whilst there's no law against being silly, there's usually a fair bit in the terms & conditions of employment (especially in the run-up to an election), to say nothing of just being a real chore to work for in person.

Here's hoping her boss isn't minded to really dig & will forget about it with the next couple of months to distract them.

Meanwhile abandon the account & lay off the feedback she isn't willing to put her name to.

k3lvc

stephenliverpool1 wrote: »

He just responded to her private yahoo email address after she gave him some constructive anonymous feedback.

Presumably if he guessed who it was it wasn't anonymous enough

Skalavagr

stephenliverpool1 wrote: »

Hi all,

I have friend that has sent some silly ems via her yahoo email account. None were rude or offensive; I have seen them so I know. Trouble is her manager has involved the company IT team. Can anyone confirm whether they can trace these yahoo messages back to her IP address.

I don't think that they can but would be grateful if someone could confirm.

Thanks

Unless she has taken steps to prevent it (which doesn't sound likely in this case) the headers of her emails will reveal the IP address from which they were sent, from which the IT team can identify her ISP. It is theoretically possible for an ISP to identify someone from an IP and a timestamp, but in practice they won't give up that information unless it's the police making the request.