I work for a government subcontractor and the inability to go to sites
like hotmail, yahoo mail, or most message board/group sites is two-fold.

1.  These are government computers.  The use of them for
non-governmental work is prohibited.  That is the reason that they don't
want people going out and checking their personal mail on company time
and equipment.  We don't count this kind of group since this is
considered professional development related. 
 
2.  Our email system scans aggressively for viruses and other types of
attacks.  The same type of rigor is not part of our internet access.
Thus, if there was a virus attached to an email on my hotmail account,
it could infect our systems easier than one send to my office account.

That's my "two cents"

Lisa Hawkins, CRM
Information Management Analyst
BWXT Y-12
Information Policy, Records & Document Management 

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