Workplace Employees May Be Monitored without Acknowledgement

We live in a time where our every move is being monitored… on the street, in the mall… everything and everyone is on camera. Smile! 

As a data recovery specialist and a pioneer in the field, many years ago when I was just starting out in this line of work, I was employed at a recovery firm. I was an office manager and the company had cameras everywhere – including pointed at the washrooms. The idea was that you couldn’t get away with anything, even if you tried to slip something into your pocket. Chances were that it was getting captured on video.

Sort of extreme, don’t you think?

Workplaces are no different, aside from being videotaped in a number of businesses and corporations, your activity may be recorded on more than just on a camera. You may be recorded while at work at your desktop by your desktop. That’s right. Everything that you do on your work computer can be monitored and recorded – even as you read this now.

Here’s the reality of the ‘big brother in the office‘ situation – there are programs that can be purchased for about $99 that will allow you to monitor up to five different computers at once.

The applications can be installed either in regular or stealth mode, and the computer user will not be any wiser that the program is running in the background keeping track of what that person is doing.

Now the question that has probably crossed your mind – is this even legal?

According to G-S-LAW, it is. In fact, if you choose to transmit data over your employer’s network, the employer may have access to – and be able to review – that data. However, if the property is yours, that is to say, that you are using your personal laptop at the office and find out that you have been monitored, that’s a law broken right there.

Keep in mind, there are other ways of monitoring data such as web traffic coming to and from an individual IP. So let’s just assume that you wanted to browse a website you aren’t supposed to be viewing while at work. The IT would be monitoring that from the access to the network and you could end up in trouble. Since it is so easy to track an IP address, it isn’t hard to discover who it belongs to inside a DHCP server.

If you have a feeling that you are being monitored on your personal computer you have an option. You can open up Task Manager file on your computer. Skip through all the processes. Then Google Search for the process you think should not be there. This may take you to the manufacturer’s website.

Technology Advances.

As technology continues to move forward, it is now a possibility to monitor smartphones as well. All you need is an installed app to gain limited control or to monitor the activity taking place inside that media device.

I’ve said it before and I’m going to keep saying it. We live in a world with very advanced technology. Workplaces put a lot of emphasis in keeping up-to-date on the current technology tools as well as protecting them with advanced security features. As intrusive as it sounds, monitoring does happen and it is far more commonplace than you may think or expect. These giant corporations and even medium-sized companies use monitoring tools to keep an eye on what employees are doing during their work hours.

So, since it happens in many job situations. We should just accept the fact that we are being watched and just go through the motions. Work is work, right?

Well, there are some really good reasons for employers to ‘watch’ their staff. Not all bosses are paranoid, you know. However, some have had staff steal from the workplace so monitoring makes sense in this instance. Also, monitoring is a good way for employers to see that their staff are actually working and not just goofing around online during work hours.

I know, it may sound harsh, but you have to look at it from the perspective of the employer. If someone is getting paid to provide eight hours of work per day, it should be pretty close to eight hours of actual work.

Remember, I mentioned in the beginning that we are constantly being watched. Your ATM, the intersection your just drove through and even stores you frequent as a shopper. Your image is being captured on video a lot more than you are probably aware of.

That is the way our world is currently.

Possibly if we think of all the monitoring as actually protecting us in some way, it doesn’t seem as intrusive. Well, maybe not so intrusive to some of us who see both sides of the equation. In that sense, it really isn’t such a big deal…or is it?