Electronic Monitoring Of Employees example essay topic

When the Department of Defense developed the Internet in the 1970's as an alternative wartime communication method, no one could have predicted the enormous global impact it would have. Today, millions of people throughout the world surf the Net regularly for news, work, shopping, and entertainment. Hundreds of thousands of World Wide Web sites provide vast quantities of information, and the Internet enables Netizen's to send electronic mail messages around the globe in an instant, trade stocks on Wall Street from their own personal computers, and order products and services from on-line businesses. However, the Internet introduces new problems as well. Many of them are concerned with the right to privacy.

Not everyone wants other people to know what he or she is doing online. Technology has made it possible to collect, store, and retrieve almost limitless amounts of personal information about every aspect of our lives. This information, in our increasingly technological times, is more accessible than ever before to third parties who may use in any way they want. Some people assume that there is no privacy on the Internet and that you use the Internet at your own risk. Others believe that companies with sites on the Internet should have strict privacy procedures and should be accountable for privacy invasion.

With either view, the potential privacy invasion on the Internet is huge. People invading your privacy could be anyone from criminal hackers to marketing companies or corporate bosses. Information about you and your computer can be captured. When this information is combined with other information, companies can know what you read, what products you buy, and what your interests are. According to an executive of an Internet software monitoring company, It is a marketing persons dream. Recent issues of companies monitoring their employees have raised concerns.

Workers may find that they are being closely monitored via computer technology. These computer monitoring systems tie directly into computerized workstations. Specialized computer programs can keep track of every keystroke made by a user. Even though many employees complain that their right to privacy is violated, such tool as electronic monitoring might be of great help to employers and company as a whole. This type of system can determine what workers are doing while at the keyboard. The system also knows when the worker is not using the keyboard or computer system.

It can also estimate what a person is doing and how many breaks he or she is taking. According to 1993 survey by the computer magazine Macworld, 20 million Americans were subject to computer monitoring. Nearly three-quarters of major U.S. firms report that their employees communications and activities on the job, including e-mail, Internet connections, and computer files. This figure has doubled since 1997, driven by a dramatic increase in employers interest in what employees are doing.

Some people might argue that electronic monitoring of employees is spying on them. However, e-mail monitoring is legal. It is legal if a company has implemented a written e-mail policy in which employees are warned that their e-mails and Internet connections can be monitored and that they should have no expectation of privacy. One of the programs helping to monitor employees is called Keystroke. It allows to control several desktop programs by replaying icon clicks, mouse movements, text insertion, and running programs. More and more employers all over the world use this program.

It has been on the market since 1992 and has proven that it can increase control, efficiency, and productivity of a business. They have a legitimate interest in monitoring work to ensure efficiency and productivity.