(Wireless News Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)
The 2007 Electronic Monitoring & Surveillance Survey from American
Management Association (AMA) and The ePolicy Institute shows employers
increasingly combine technology with policy to manage productivity and
minimize litigation, security, and other risks.

To motivate compliance with rules and policies, more than one fourth of
employers have fired workers for misusing e-mail and nearly one third
have fired employees for misusing the Internet.

E-Mail and Internet-Related Terminations:

The 28 percent of employers who have fired workers for e-mail misuse
did so for the following reasons: violation of any company policy (64
percent); inappropriate or offensive language (62 percent); excessive
personal use (26 percent); breach of confidentiality rules (22
percent); other (12 percent).

The 30 percent of bosses who have fired workers for Internet misuse
cite the following reasons: viewing, downloading, or uploading
inappropriate/offensive content (84 percent); violation of any company
policy (48 percent); excessive personal use (34 percent); other (9
percent).

Internet, E-Mail, Blogs and Social Networking:

Employers are primarily concerned about inappropriate Web surfing, with
66 percent monitoring Internet connections. Fully 65 percent of
companies use software to block connections to inappropriate Websites a
27 percent increase since 2001 when AMA/ePolicy Institute first
surveyed electronic monitoring and surveillance policies and
procedures. Employers who block access to the Web are concerned about
employees visiting adult sites with sexual, romantic, or pornographic
content (96 percent); game sites (61 percent); social networking sites
(50 percent); entertainment sites (40 percent); shopping/auction sites
(27 percent); and sports sites (21 percent). In addition, companies use
URL blocks to stop employees from visiting external blogs (18 percent).

Computer monitoring takes many forms, with 45 percent of employers
tracking content, keystrokes, and time spent at the keyboard. Another
43 percent store and review computer files. In addition, 12 percent
monitor the blogosphere to see what is being written about the company,
and another 10 percent monitor social networking sites.

Of the 43 percent of companies that monitor e-mail, 73 percent use
technology tools to automatically monitor e-mail and 40 percent assign
an individual to manually read and review e-mail.

"Concern over litigation and the role electronic evidence plays in
lawsuits and regulatory investigations has spurred more employers to
monitor online activity. Data security and employee productivity
concerns also motivate employers to monitor Web and e-mail use and
content," said Nancy Flynn, Executive Director of The ePolicy Institute
and author of The ePolicy Handbook, 2nd Edition (AMACOM,), E-Mail Rules
(AMACOM 2003), Instant Messaging Rules (AMACOM 2004), Blog Rules
(AMACOM 2006), and other books related to workplace computer use.

"Workers' e-mail and other electronically stored information create
written business records that are the electronic equivalent of DNA
evidence," said Flynn, noting that 24 percent of employers have had
e-mail subpoenaed by courts and regulators and another 15 percent have
battled workplace lawsuits triggered by employee e-mail, according to
2006 AMA/ ePolicy research. "To help control the risk of litigation,
security breaches and other electronic disasters, employers should take
advantage of monitoring and blocking technology to battle people
problems including the accidental and intentional misuse of computer
systems and other electronic resources," Flynn said.

While only two states, Delaware and Connecticut, require employers to
notify employees of monitoring, the majority are doing a good job of
alerting employees when they are being watched. Fully 83 percent inform
workers that the company is monitoring content, keystrokes and time
spent at the keyboard; 84 percent let employees know the company
reviews computer activity; and 71 percent alert employees to e-mail
monitoring. But are employers doing enough to educate employees on
their specific policies?

"Most employees receive policies regarding use of office business tools
and privacy issues on the first day of employment, but too often they
don't read them. Employers need to do more than hand over a written
policy," says Manny Avramidis, Senior Vice President of global human
resources for AMA. "They should educate employees on company
expectations and offer training on an annual basis."

Telephone and Voice Mail:

Six percent of employers have fired employees for misuse or private use
of office phones. Fully 45 percent monitor time spent and numbers
called, and another 16 percent record phone conversations. An
additional 9 percent monitor employees' voicemail messages. Most
employers notify employees of phone (84 percent) and voicemail (73
percent) monitoring.

Video Surveillance:

Almost half (48 percent) of the companies surveyed use video monitoring
to counter theft, violence and sabotage. Only 7 percent use video
surveillance to track employees' on-the-job performance. Most employers
notify employees of anti-theft video surveillance (78 percent) and
performance-related video monitoring (89 percent).

Global Satellite Positioning and Emerging Surveillance Technology:

Employers who use Assisted Global Positioning or Global Positioning
Systems satellite technology are in the minority, with only 8 percent
using GPS to track company vehicles; 3 percent using GPS to monitor
cell phones; and fewer than 1 percent using GPS to monitor employee
ID/Smartcards. The majority (52 percent) of companies employ Smartcard
technology to control physical security and access to buildings and
data centers. Trailing far behind is the use of technology that enables
fingerprint scans (2 percent), facial recognition (0.4 percent) and
iris scans (0.4 percent).

((Comments on this story may be sent to newsdesk@closeupmedia.com))

((Distributed on behalf of 10Meters via M2 Communications Ltd -
http://www.m2.com))
((10Meters - http://www.10meters.com))

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