The results are in: 2005 Electronic Monitoring & Surveillance Survey
posted by:Marty // 06:31 PM // May 25, 2005 // Surveillance and social sorting
Last week, on May 18, 2005, the American Management Association issued a press release that highlights the results from its 2005 survey on workplace electronic monitoring and surveillance. Here are some notable results:
- 26% have fired workers for misusing the Internet,
- Another 25% have terminated employees for e-mail misuse,
- 6% have fired employees for misusing office telephones,
- 76% of employers monitor workers' Website connections for inappropriate content,
- 65% of companies use software to block connections to inappropriate Websites—a 27% increase since 2001 when AMA and ePolicy Institute last surveyed electronic monitoring and surveillance policies and procedures in the workplace,
"Of those organizations that engage in monitoring and surveillance activities, fully 80% inform workers that the company is monitoring content, keystrokes and time spent at the keyboard; 82% let employees know the company stores and reviews computer files; 86% alert employees to e-mail monitoring; and 89% notify employees that their Web usage is being tracked."
At least 89% of respondents have the decency to notify employees that their usage is being tracked.
Forgetting for a momment obvious issues of discomfort, as an aside think of how employees can spin snooping to their benefit and use the fact that they are being watched to create the image of being the great employee. Perhaps they can look at key websites, send useless e-mails complementing the company and superiors, thereby helping mold a model employee image. Imagine getting a bigger raise because the boss, who reads your e-mail, is under the impression that you worship the ground she walks on. Of course how likely is that?
What really is distressing here is not the use of technology to track online and telecommunications activity, but rather using technology, such as GPS, to track physical activity.
"Employers who use Assisted Global Positioning or Global Positioning Systems satellite technology are in the minority, with only 5% using GPS to monitor cell phones; 8% using GPS to track company vehicles; and 8% using GSP to monitor employee ID/Smartcards.
The majority (53%) 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 (5%), facial recognition (2%) and iris scans ( 0.5%)."
How long until these numbers skyrocket? All it takes is a decrease in acquisition cost to make the business-case all the more viable. Once that occurs, the sanctity of physical movement and activity (inactivity as the case may be when trying to sneak a nap at one's desk) will be erroded.
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