Employee Monitoring Software: Protecting Your Privacy in the Workplace

Most employers give their employees a reasonable amount of workplace privacy. Few managers grow concerned when an employee occasionally visits a news website or sends an email home. While at work, except in the company restroom or locker room, employees have no legal privacy rights.

In today's digital world, numerous employers are implementing employee monitoring software. On occasion, managers inform their staff that they are being monitored. Some studies show that informing workers of computer monitoring can prevent undesirable workplace behaviors. Nonetheless, secret monitoring of an employee's computer activity is legal.

Across the USA, personal privacy on the job is constantly under debate. The courts have repeatedly ruled that employees should have no expectation of privacy in the workplace. Moreover, covert staff surveillance has withstood the legal challenges of numerous disgruntled workers.

Consistently, the courts rule in the employer's favor. Without fail, courts find that businesses can implement employee monitoring software on all company-owned computers. After all, the worker receives pay for their time and the employer is the owner of the monitored computer.

Protecting your privacy in the workplace is not a challenging task; however, it requires that workers understand the capabilities of employee monitoring software. This understanding can empower workers so they can feel confident that their sensitive personal information remains their own.

We have researched employee monitoring software as well as ways to protect your personal privacy and sensitive information at work. At TopTenREVIEWS We Do the Research So You Don't Have To.™

Intellectual property is a valuable business asset. Examples of intellectual property include the programming code that makes a computer application work, guarded trade secrets and marketing strategies. Employee surveillance in the workplace is an obvious proactive step for a company to take to protect its intellectual property.

Failing to protect proprietary digital assets from corporate espionage has caused the demise of many strong companies. Additionally, lost revenue from low employee productivity can quickly reduce profit margins and business sustainability. Clearly, there are many reasons a company chooses to implement an employee monitoring strategy.

For an objective side-by-side comparison of employee surveillance applications and their capabilities, please read our reviews of Employee Monitoring Software. Our top rated products are SONAR, Spector CNE Investigator and Spytech NetVizor.

These types of surveillance products have several common components. If you work on a computer located in a network environment, you can expect your employer to monitor all of your computer activities. Employee monitoring software can record all aspects of computer use including:

• Accessed websites as well as date, time, duration and frequency of visit
• Online searches
• File downloads and uploads
• Software installations
• The use of portable hard drives and other external media
• Document printing, creation, reading, modification, copying, moving and deletion
• Keyboard strokes
• Sent and received email correspondence and attached documents
• The transcripts of conversations that occur via chat or instant messaging applications
• Usernames, passwords and account IDs
• Launched applications
• Screenshots of images displayed on your computer screen

There are numerous ways to protect your personal privacy at work. We have listed some important steps below.

Employee monitoring software can capture the contents of these types of email communications. If you access them from work computers, your supervisor could review your private correspondences. Save yourself some embarrassment; only check these messages from a computer you own and from the confines of your own home or other environment where you do have a reasonable expectation of privacy. Refrain from checking personal web-based email accounts provided by services like Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail or others.

Remember that good employee monitoring solutions log all accessed websites, record keystrokes and take snapshots of your display. Refrain from doing online shopping or accessing your bank account. When you perform these activities at work, your employer can learn your usernames, passwords and account IDs.

Use the company's internet connection for work purposes only. Resist the temptation to play online games, visit social networking sites or engage in other questionable activities. These types of activities could cost your both your job and your ability to obtain future gainful employment.

Never store your personal documents on company computers. At any time, your manager could access your resume, cover letter or love-smitten poetry. Save yourself the humiliation and just don't do it.

Some businesses implement instant messaging software to facilitate company communication. Refrain from engaging in personal conversations, harassing or teasing coworkers, badmouthing supervisors or typing foul language when using a work chat application. Always conduct yourself in a professional manner when communicating at work.

Today, the majority of businesses monitor their employees in some fashion. Employers can remotely look on in real time as their staff performs job-related tasks. With a few thoughtful steps and appropriate behaviors, a worker can easily safeguard their personal privacy on the job.