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Find a Business or PersonWorkplace Surveillance
-How Workplace Surveillance WorksAdmit it -- you've used your computer at work to view non-work-related Web sites. Heck, if you are reading this article at work, you might already be guilty as charged. More than 70 percent of the adult online population has accessed the Internet at work for personal use at least once, according to a September 2000 eMarketer study. Employees are sending personal e-mails, playing games, viewing pornography, shopping, checking stock prices and gambling online during working hours. |
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A Growing TrendThe growing number of employers who are monitoring their employees' activities is a result of the low cost of the monitoring technology, a growing percentage of employees using their computers for personal use and an increase in employees leaking sensitive company information. Employers are also watching their workers to avoid sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuits that stem from inappropriate and offensive e-mails circulating within a company. |
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Desktop MonitoringEvery time you provide some form of input for your computer, whether it's typing on the keyboard or opening a new application, a signal is transmitted. These signals can be intercepted by a desktop monitoring program, which can be installed on a computer at the operating system level or the assembly level. The person receiving the intercepted signals can see each character being typed and can replicate what the user is seeing on his or her screen. |
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Log FilesYour computer is full of log files that provide evidence of what you've been doing. Through these log files, a system administrator can determine what Web sites you've accessed, whom you are sending e-mails to and receiving e-mails from and what applications are being used. So, if you are downloading MP3 files, there's more than likely a log file that holds data about that activity. |
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Packet SniffersComputer-network administrators have used packet sniffers for years to monitor their networks and perform diagnostic tests or troubleshoot problems. Essentially, a packet sniffer is a program that can see all of the information passing over the network it is connected to. As data streams back and forth on the network, the program looks at, or "sniffs," each packet. A packet is a part of a message that has been broken up. |
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Privacy LawsSimply stated, courts in the United States tend to favor the employer in workplace-surveillance cases. For that reason, employees should always use good judgment when logging onto the Internet and sending e-mails. Choose your words carefully; you never know who might read your correspondence. Under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), electronic communications are divided into two groups: * |
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Traditional EavesdroppingComputer surveillance is by far the primary method of monitoring employee activity. However, employers are still using traditional methods such as eavesdropping on phone calls, storing and reviewing voice mail and video-recording employees on the job, according to the American Management Association (AMA). "The lines between one's personal and professional life can blur with expectations of a 24-seven work week, but employees ought to engage in some discretion |
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