[March 13, 2013] Helpware: Your keystrokes are an open book Tweet Mar 13, 2013 (McClatchy-Tribune News Service - McClatchy-Tribune News Service via COMTEX) -- A large corporation recently determined that its middle managers were spending several hours a day visiting Facebook, shopping online and sending emails that had nothing to do with their jobs. As a result, employees were not-too-politely asked to pursue other interests, and those interests didn't come with paychecks. How did management know its employees were cruising the Internet on company time Keyboard loggers probably were used, and a $49 program, modestly called The Best Keylogger, would probably have done the trick. I'm not here to debate whether workers are entitled to unlimited privacy on the job. Companies have rules, and employees should abide by them. That said, if companies want to enforce those rules, The Best Keylogger does live up to its name. It's easy to use, and it provides copious reports. The software will tell the boss which websites workers visited; take snapshots of Web pages they've perused; report on which files and applications were used and whether they've been printed (on the company's printers, of course); and note from whom they received emails and to whom they've sent them. It will even send logs of workers' activities via email to those who need to know. How does an employee _ or your spouse or child, for that matter _ know that the keyboard (and mouse-click) logger is installed on their Windows PC There's an icon on the desktop that's hard to miss. More puzzling is a second icon for uninstalling the program. Guess who's going to use the latter Other than that, there is no evidence in the programs directory that the program has been installed or is running at the moment. I'm guessing that I chose to put the two icons on my desktop during installation. Still, if I missed the option not to install the icons, would human resources or other interested people miss the choice, too Reports are thorough and can be customized. You get to see exactly what's being typed, or how mouse-clicks are used. Screen shots are a bit low-resolution, but clear enough to tell administrators where their charges have visited. The program is password-protected, and the logging can be turned off by pressing four keys at once, a feat that's not geared to people with small fingers. A trial version, on which I based my review, is good for three days. Nag screens to buy the paid version are flashed each time you call up the program. For $49, The Best Keylogger would be on my list if you really had a legitimate reason to find out who did what and when on their computer. It also would be useful to track kids' adventures in computing, and for the paranoid and nosy, for tracking someone else's activities at home and abroad. I don't endorse any of these snooping exercises. The trial version can be downloaded at http://www.thebestkeylogger.com. --- (C)2013 McClatchy-Tribune Information Services Distributed by MCT Information Services [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]