By-Lined Article
Employer monitoring: It's a small world after all
By Eric J. Sinrod
June 1, 2005
USAToday.com
Banish the notion forever that you are alone at work when performing your various job functions. Indeed, as just one example of workplace monitoring, according to the 2005 Electronic Monitoring & Surveillance Survey by the American Management Association and the ePolicy Institute, 76% of employers monitor Web site connections of employees.
The survey explains that monitoring takes various forms, with 36% of employers tracking content, keystrokes and time spent online.
Of the employers surveyed, 50% store and review computer files of employees.
Along these lines, 55% of surveyed employers retain and review employee emails.
To combat potential inappropriate Web surfing of employees, 65% of employers use Internet blocking software to restrict access to certain sites.
While the foregoing statistics could cause employees to feel paranoid and claustrophobic, at least employers generally are notifying employees about how they are being monitored.
In fact, 80% of surveyed employers inform employees that content, keystrokes and time spent online is monitored, 82% inform employees that their computer files are stored and reviewed, 86% advise of email monitoring, and 89% apprise employees that their Web usage is tracked.
It is important to recognize that employers do have valid reasons for monitoring in certain instances. For example, employers have to be concerned about electronic evidence relating to litigation, intellectual property and trade secret misappropriation and dissemination through electronic means, electronic and online defamatory content, and true worker productivity.
As a result, not only do employers monitor their employees, 84% have set up policies governing personal email use, 81% have rules addressing personal Internet use, 42% have policies regarding personal IM use, 34% have rules with respect to the operation of personal Web sites on employer time, 23% have policies about postings on corporate blogs, and 20% have guidelines regarding operation of personal blogs on employer time.
At the end of the day, it is fairly clear that when it comes to privacy in the workplace, the lyric "It's A Small World After All" comes to mind, as such privacy is vanishing.
Eric Sinrod is a partner in the San Francisco office of Duane Morris (www.duanemorris.com), where he focuses on litigation matters of various types, including information technology disputes. His column appears Wednesdays at USATODAY.com. His Web site is www.sinrodlaw.com, and he can be reached at . To receive a weekly e-mail link to Mr. Sinrod's columns, please send an e-mail with the word Subscribe in the Subject line to .
Reprinted here with permission from USAToday.com.
