It's not that I don't get it ... I GET IT. But as I walk by my co-workers' cubes, I see photos of babies and dogs and husbands pop up in wall paper and screen savers. Are you honestly saying that none of them should have any of that on their work machine? And, along the same lines, scheulding of the kids' orthodontic appointments should only be happeing in private email? That's just not realisitc and sometimes not even possible. Not realistic because Outlook is in our face all day long. Not even possible because our corporate firewalls block Gmail and all other popular public email services...

The TrueCrypt solution seems like a good one, I'll definitely be checking that out. And if it works as it looks like it should, I'll recommend it to those who insist on having photos of their loved ones on their work computers.

Thanks for the (helpful) suggestions. Should have know that minds would jump to trannies and bukkake, but that's slashdot for you.

I get all the issues raised. I don't know if the dead guy *actually* had anything rumor-worthy. Maybe, maybe not. What is a little horrifying to me is if these rumors get back to his family. I get that if I write an email to my wife from work, it is entirely possible that IT could have seen it, maybe even passed it around. That is less of a conern to me than some office interns getting access, with their possible lack of IT ethics. The rumors are all about admins (by "admins" I should make it clear I meant "adminstrative assistants"), not IT.

As for the content, it doesn't even really matter if it is a naked photo of my wife or a picture of my kid blowing out birthday candles - it is not relevent to business and no one else needs to see it. "Company resources" yada yada yada ... I don't know many people who don't have personal stuff on their work computer embarrassing or not.

So I'm dead, what do I care? Well, I don't even know the dead guy's family, and I care about the repercussions for them... why would I *not* care about my own family after my demise? Of more concern to me are my journals - they are my private thoughts, and if I can't control them, I don't want anyone, maybe even *especially* my own family, having access. Dead or not. Maybe if I were someone important, and my diaries could bring them financial gain after my death, I might care less about them surviving me. But no one is going to pay for them - and if my thoughts about family got out to everyone out of context (or even in context), there could be stress and anxiety they don't need.

I'll read the upmodded replies with interest. Thanks.