Look Who's Talking (and Chatting and Surfing)

I confess. Sometimes my in-office IM conversations don't pertain to work, and maybe I check my personal email once in a while. But my responsibilities come first, and I always get my work done. So why am I freaked out that my employer could be watching my every move?

Monitoring employees' computer activities isn't anything new and, as forum member rain3d states, is a company's right as long as it's "understood by the employee in a written acceptable use policy (signed by employee) that the computers are for business use only and subject to monitoring" (www.windowsitpro.com/go/MonitorEmail).

Even if snooping on worker bees is legal, many people still feel that such actions are an invasion of privacy. Others think that surveillance is the only way to keep a business running efficiently. I agree that people should work while they're at work; I just don't remember when keeping employees scared became the only way to keep them honest.

Do you think that monitoring employees' computer activity is fair or that it's gone too far? Share your thoughts on this blog post, or email me at Christan.Humphries@penton.com.

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It goes way beyond monitoring. Moniorting is just one of the methods used to keep my business safe. You know how many companies get sued because they have "Created a hostle workplace" because they didnt "prevent" Joe Testosterone from using the Giant Boob Screen saver so the women he works with will know he's a stud? Go ahead, call me Mordac, the preventor of information services (Dilbert) From my experince, while there are exceptions, most employees where I work dont understand the connection between that cool internet gadget and malware. And thats ok. We dont hire them because of their advanced knowledge of computer security, thats my job. But in an era where China and many other forien nations (not to mention competitors) are desperatly trying to steal information that will give them a technical advantage, its my job to protect my infrastructure from malware, root kits, viruses etc. So as badly as those employees want to install unapproved apps off the internet, weather its some "freeware" that will give them legitimate additional functionality for business use, or some cool screen saver that comes with the Free keylogger that takes your credentials and sends them out to bad guys, to them, My answer is Sorry, No! Not to even mention the fact that if they read deep into the EULA, they'll find out that what may be free for them to install at home, has to be purchased if the business is going to use it, thus opening the business up to audits and fines. But really, the bottom line is its not your computer to "play with". It is a business tool.

gb4 March 05, 2008 (Article Rating:

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"Freaked out" and "scared" ? You may be too sensitive. If your employer's primary purpose of monitoring is to protect its IT resources, that enable it to operate, then it has that right, and that responsibility - to you. [If an IT crash causes the company to crash, then your job might be in jeopardy.] Plus, you may be responsible, and always get your work done, but that is NOT necessarily true of ALL employees, and is certainly not true of those hackers and malware developers out in the WWW.

You may take some comfort in that if your employer IS monitoring, equitably, and DOESN'T make an issue of your occasionally checking your personal email, then that is not where they are concerned.

RayG March 05, 2008 (Article Rating:

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