This research considers electronic employee monitoring in the workplace and the moral/ethical problems such monitoring raises.
There are various types of electronic monitoring which can be used at a company. Increasingly common is the use of computer based monitoring in the workplace. The most comprehensive of this type of monitoring tracks each and every keystroke and mouse click that a user inputs from their personal computer or workstation. Most keystroke monitoring systems permit employers to review how employees are using workplace computers and the various software programs available to them. Critics point out, however, that keystroke monitoring can also help employers to "listen in" on an employees' word processing program, and determine whether the employee is writing a personal letter or a business proposal (Buss 45).
Employers can also monitor the Web sites that employees are visiting. Increasingly, Internet sites are making this easier to do since they often install "cookies" on the computers which access individual sites, or maintain a history file. Since most employees who access the Internet do so across a network, the electronic "footprint" that they leave behind can be substantial and enough for an MIS professional to determine if employees are visiting sites which are inappropriate, or if they are spending "too much" time surfing the Internet.
Some companies have taken pre-emptive steps with regard to Web surfing and simply blocked employees from going to sites based on certain parameters. Game sites, adult sites and similar sites (sometimes including auction sites) can all be blocked without knowing whether employees are actually visiting those sites. It is also possible to determine if employees try to visit such sites in the event that they are blocked.
Some employers use computer monitoring to track whether employees are using the various software programs that are installed on their personal ...