Apparently, a lot of those folks are watching porn and downloading illegal MP3s.

According to data collected by security vendor ScanSafe, compared to in-office workers, employees who take company devices home are:

• 2.5 times more likely to look at pornography
• 8.5 times more likely to use illegal file-sharing services, and
• 3.9 times more likely to do other illegal activity.

(Interestingly, remote workers were 66% less likely to use their devices for online banking — which is a common form of personal use in the office.)

It shouldn’t be a surprise that browsing habits change when someone’s no longer in an office. Also, the report doesn’t say how many employees are using company property for offensive or illegal means.

Still, HR and IT should take note and remind roaming employees that technology use rules apply to devices used at home, too.

A recent survey by staffing agency Spherion founds that about a third (32%) of employees listen to iPods and other music devices at work. And 79% of those folks said it improves their job satisfaction and productivity.

What’s interesting about that info is that the other 21% don’t get a productivity or satisfaction boost from listening to music, but do it anyway. A big chunk of them probably become less productive.

Data like that makes a good case for laying off of rules about headphones at work and focusing on performance instead. But some ground rules about how employees use those devices can prevent data security problems. For example:

1. No downloading mp3s at work. That can leave the company network open to virus attacks.
2. No connecting the devices to work computers. Transferring data between personal devices and work computers can create a back door through IT’s security controls.