Other Places You're Being Watched
More companies are Googling employees (both before and after hiring) to get the scoop on their lives. Your address, hobbies, credit reports, and criminal history can all be found online. In addition, according to the 2007 AMA survey, 12 percent of companies monitor the blogosphere to see what is being written about the company, and another 10 percent monitor social-networking sites. Such noninvasive techniques are becoming the most used way to track employees. Common sense dictates that you don't post anything anywhere on the Internet that you wouldn't want your boss to see.
Employee monitoring doesn't have to end with the workstation and Internet. Fully 45 percent of employers monitor time spent and numbers called on company phones, and another 16 percent record phone conversations. An additional 9 percent monitor employees' voice mail messages. Most employers notify employees of phone (84 percent) and voice mail (73 percent) monitoring. The ECPA requires that employers not monitor personal phone calls, but using your cell phone to stay on the safe side might be a good idea.
Almost half (48 percent) of the companies surveyed use video monitoring to counter theft, violence, and sabotage, but only 7 percent use video surveillance to track employees' on-the-job performance. Most employers notify employees of anti-theft video surveillance (78 percent) and performance-related video monitoring (89 percent).
Employers who use GPS to track their employees' whereabouts are in a small minority, with only 8 percent using GPS to track company vehicles; 3 percent using GPS to monitor cell phones; and fewer than 1 percent using GPS to monitor employee ID/Smartcards.
Your employer could be watching you. We tell you how to know whether you're being monitored and what you can do about it.
It's possible that someone has been reading your e-mails, listening to your phone calls, and tracking your Internet use. No, it's not a foreign spy. It's not even your ex—it's your employer. And she doesn't even need to tell you she's doing it.
Employers can legally monitor their workers however they want. They can log and review all computer activity as long as they own the machines. The most popular method of keeping tabs on employees is to track Internet use: A whopping 66 percent of companies monitor employee Internet activity, according to a survey released in February by the American Management Association and the ePolicy Institute. What are they looking for? Frequent visits to sexually explicit sites, game sites, and social-networking sites like Facebook on company time. Almost a third of those who said they monitor their employees have fired someone for inappropriate
Employers can legally monitor their workers however they want. They can log and review all computer activity as long as they own the machines. The most popular method of keeping tabs on employees is to track Internet use: A whopping 66 percent of companies monitor employee Internet activity, according to a survey released in February by the American Management Association and the ePolicy Institute. What are they looking for? Frequent visits to sexually explicit sites, game sites, and social-networking sites like Facebook on company time. Almost a third of those who said they monitor their employees have fired someone for inappropriate
Web surfing.
Some companies monitor employees—tracking keystrokes, reviewing computer files, and reading e-mail—to ensure they're staying loyal. Press leaks of confidential information and trade secrets are of legitimate concern to employers, and many will go to great lengths to make sure that their employees aren't using company computers to pass on information to outside sources.
How They Do It
Most employers who monitor their workers use software loaded directly onto the workstations. Some applications, such as
Employee monitoring is, for the most part, completely legal. Only two states—Delaware and Connecticut—require employers to notify employees of monitoring. But most employers do (and should) make a point of alerting employees to surveillance, in order to avoid the fuzzy legal and ethical boundaries surrounding electronic privacy in the workplace. Of those surveyed who monitor their employees, 83 percent said they inform them that they're doing it.
But not every company informs employees of its actions when it should, which can lead to serious trouble. Case in point: Hewlett-Packard . In 2006, HP hired private investigators to help find the source of information leaks. They used slimy—but legal—tactics such as digging through trash, sending fake e-mails loaded with hidden tracking software, and tailing journalists who were communicating with HP employees. They crossed the legal line when they used pretexting, or posing as someone else in order to get phone records. The chairman of HP and half a dozen board members resigned or were fired as a result, and the entire debacle shed new light on the possibilities of employee monitoring in the digital age.
E-mail monitoring can be particularly tricky. Employers can look through old e-mail, but monitoring e-mails in real time as they come in and out is still a gray legal area. An employer may intercept communications where there is actual or implied employee consent. Implied consent has been found where the employer simply gave notice of the monitoring. The only area that is definitely off-limits is employees' personal laptops and hard drives.
How Do You Know?
If you're using a company-owned computer, it's probably a good idea to assume your activity is being monitored. And unless you're using encrypted e-mail, you should try to avoid using your work e-mail address for personal correspondence. If that's not realistic, then a good rule of thumb is to read every e-mail before you send it, and think about how your boss might react if he or she were reading it.
In most cases you can detect monitoring software the same way as other spyware. Any application
Some antispyware programs can detect and even remove keyloggers. If you install a program like
If a spyware scan isn't revealing anything and you're still apprehensive, you can check for any suspicious processes that are running. It's hard to weed out the normal processes from the foreign ones, however, unless the invasive program creates an obvious folder or process (YouAreBeingWatched.exe). And some monitoring software, like Elite Keylogger, uses rootkit techniques, so you can't even see its processes or files. Hit Ctrl-Alt-Delete and go to the Task Manager to see a list of processes running on your workstation. You may get lucky if you're really familiar with your computer's processes, or if the program really does use an obvious name (some programs do).
Of course, the easiest way to find out whether you're being monitored is just to ask your employers. Ethical considerations will most likely push them to tell you the truth, and they probably know that if they lie it could be grounds for legal trouble later on. The responsible employer should create an Acceptable Use Policy to make what is appropriate in the workplace completely clear. But if you think you're being watched (and you're pretty sure it's not the CIA or your ex), try a standard spyware detection program or monitor your computer's processes.
If you do find you're being monitored, depending on the circumstances, you might be able to take legal action against your employer. The only legal limit on workplace surveillance comes in the form of the ECPA (the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, passed in 1986), which prohibits employers from deliberately eavesdropping on personal conversations. The ECPA does not protect any kind of communication except the spoken word, though, so your every action while at work, including personal e-mails, is most likely subject to review by your employer. You might not be able to take your employer to court for watching you at work, but at least you'll know to quit spending so much time playing
by Brittany Petersen
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