Forty employees at Xerox have been fired for checking out Net porn while at work.

The company has been monitoring all of its 92,000 staff worldwide, recording every Web site visited - something that two thirds of US companies admit to - and decided to make an example of the virtual voyeurs.

Xerox was typically understated in its response. "This is more than somebody checking out sports scores online," said a spokeswoman Christa Carone.

"These people were spending far too much time on non-Xerox-related sites." Non-related sites indeed.

Surveillance of worker's email, phone calls, Internet use and hard disks has been on the increase as companies get increasingly paranoid about the efficiency of modern communication and panic-inducing problems like viruses (and because they can - Ed).

Back in May, five employees of Rolls Royce were sacked after being found using the company network to distribute hardcore porn.

While we'd never dream of condoning such actions, The Register takes a dim view of corporate interference. Besides, some of those sites are really, you know, educational... ®

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