ZENITH

International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research

Vol.2 Issue 2, February 2012, ISSN 2231 5780

ww

w.z

enit

hre

sear

ch.o

rg.in

2

81

THE TECHNIQUES AND RATIONALE OF E- SURVEILLANCE

PRACTICES IN ORGANIZATIONS

DR.AISHA M.SHERIFF*; MRS. GEETHA RAVISHANKAR**

*Professor, Department of Studies in Business Administration,

University Mysore.

**Faculty, MBA Department,

RJS Institute of Management Studies,

Koramangala, Bangalore.

ABSTRACT

The conceptual paper entitled –“The Techniques and Rationale of e-Surveillance Practices in

Organizations” elucidates some of the key ethical issues arising out of the use of surveillance

technology in the workplace. Information age is steering the organizations towards increased use

of online workforce. This has led to the extensive dependence on internet in the organizations.

The advent of Web 2.0 applications have acted as facilitating factors for cyber loafing of online

workforce. Since Web 2.0 applications induce interactive information sharing, interoperability

and collaboration on the World Wide Web, employees are provoked to indulge in mailing,

chatting, entering virtual world, social networking blogging, podcasting, Net-surfing, online

trading and the like. This leads to loss of productivity and loss of work-time in organizations. To

regulate such unethical practices of using organizational technology for employees‟ personal

indulgences, most of the organizations across the globe have adopted work place surveillance

systems to monitor erring employees with the help of surveillance devices and gadgets.

Employees consider surveillance or monitoring system as intrusion into their privacy and

unethical. They also claim that it is an indication of lack of trust in them. This paper discusses

about some of the e-techniques used for employee surveillance in organizations and the rationale

behind e-monitoring it.

KERWORDS: Cyber bludging, Cyber loafing, Cyber slacking, e-Surveillance, Rich Internet

Applications (RIA)., Web 2.0 applications ,Workplace Surveillance techniques.

______________________________________________________________________________

INTRODUCTION

The recent strides in information technology has enabled use of several web 2.0 applications

which are luring ,employees to indulge in Cyber slacking activities like sending personal emails,

podcasting, blogging, chatting on Social Networking Sites(SNS) like face book, LinkedIn

,twitter orkut and others. Besides these, they also involve in unofficial browsing, online trading,

shopping, gamming, checking stock prices, gambling, moonlighting and a host of other e-loafing

activities. As a consequence, organizations are facing a slump in the productivity of their

workforce. In order to enhance productivity and to discourage cyber loafing, most of the business

organizations have instituted systematic and continuous scrutinizing in the workplace through

electronic surveillance system.

ZENITH

International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research

Vol.2 Issue 2, February 2012, ISSN 2231 5780

ww

w.z

enit

hre

sear

ch.o

rg.in

2

82

OPERATIONAL DEFINITIONS

1.’CYBER SLACKING,’ „CYBER LOAFING,’ AND ‘CYBER BLUDGING’ are terms used

to describe the activities involved in wasting time on the internet while people are supposedly at

work. Cyber slacking is recreational web surfing on the job or using the internet at work for one's

own purposes. This often leads to productivity loss, bandwidth degradation and exhaustive use of

organizational resources. It may also result in legal liability to the employers and might expose to

viruses spyware and malware .Posting defamatory content in chat rooms and news groups and

sending emails under employer‟s domain can lead to legal liability to the employer.

2. WORKPLACE SURVEILLANCE is a means by which organizations monitor the activities

of the employees with the help of Information technology (IT) enabled tools and devices. When

IT applications are used in workplace monitoring it is known as e-surveillance. (Refer figure-2

for e-surveillance techniques).

3. E-Surveillance Techniques

E-surveillance techniques refer to all those IT enabled surveillance techniques used in business

establishments‟, shopping malls and Government organizations for the purpose of facilitating

effective monitoring and surveillance. These techniques are mostly used- to avoid misuse of

enterprise resources, to secure organizations against legal liability, to enhance productivity and to

avoid loss of work time due to e-loafing practices.

Checking stock

Prices

Cyber slacking

activities

In workplace

Uploading and

downloading content

Unofficial

Browsing

Online

Trading/Shopping

Gamming and

Gambling

Sending personal

mails

Social

Networking

Blogging

&Podcasting

FIGURE-1: CYBER SLACKING ACTIVITIES OF EMPLOYEES IN WORKPLACE

ZENITH

International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research

Vol.2 Issue 2, February 2012, ISSN 2231 5780

ww

w.z

enit

hre

sear

ch.o

rg.in

2

83

The surveillance tools are generally called as web sleuths, spy agents, shadows or silent

watchers. Some of the e-surveillance techniques used in organizations to monitor employees

include –

Packet Sniffers, a diagnostic software programme that is used to scrutinize all the

information that passes through the network to which it is connected. Packet sniffers can

be setup with or without filters. They can monitor online activities like the sites visited,

mails sent and received internet telephony and audio, video or textual downloads. They

help in determining the work time lost due to cyber slacking.

Desktop Monitoring Devices are installed on the computer at the assembly level. They

can intercept the signals and can replicate what the user is seeing or typing on the

employer‟s desktop. Desktop monitoring software can be physically installed by someone

or can be remotely installed by sending Trojan horse through email attachment. Hackers

also use desktop monitors to record keystrokes and to steal personal data.

Log Files System Administrator will help to track and determine the websites visited by

the employees‟ .It also detects emails sent and received and files downloaded. The log

files can be retrieved even after deleting them. They can be found in operating systems,

emails, web browsers and applications as back ups.

Closed Circuit Cameras are used in the workplace to monitor employees‟ activities. They

are mainly used for security, training and monitoring purposes. More than 78% of US

companies use CCTVs to monitor their workers. CCTVs will combat personal uses of

office technology and devices. It saves time and money and enhances productivity of the

organization.

Telephone tapping or Recording is done for quality assessment and for enhancing the

telephonic skills of the employees. Telephone tapping helps the companies to prevent

personal use of telephones.

Email filters Email filters are used as monitoring tools to filter and process both incoming

and outgoing mails of employees in the workplace

Packet Sniffers

Desktop monitors

Log Files System Administrator

CCTVs

Telephone tapping or monitoring

E-mail filters

Surf Controllers

Activity Monitors

FIGURE-2: E-SURVEILLANCE TECHNIQUES

ZENITH

International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research

Vol.2 Issue 2, February 2012, ISSN 2231 5780

ww

w.z

enit

hre

sear

ch.o

rg.in

2

84

Surf controllers will monitor, inspect and control billions of Web sites visited by

employees‟ everyday in the workplace. It will also inspect their emails and other Internet-

based communications periodically and provides web security against malware, spyware

and viruses.

Activity Monitors are powerful employee monitoring tools that consist of server and

client parts. Server can be installed on any computers in the entire Local Area Network

(LAN) and the activities of employees on such computers can be spied and monitored

4. WEB 2.0 APPLICATIONS/RICH INTERNET APPLICATIONS (RIA)

Web 2.0 applications or Rich Internet Applications refer to all those web applications that

facilitate participatory information sharing, interoperability, and collaboration on the World

Wide Web. A Web 2.0 site allows users to interact and collaborate with each other in a social

media dialogue as creators (prosumers) of user-generated content in a virtual community, in

contrast to websites where users (consumers) are limited to the passive viewing of content that

was created for them. Examples of Web 2.0 include social networking sites, blogs, wikis, video

sharing sites, hosted services, web applications, podcasts, micro blogs, tags ,social bookmarks,

RSS feeds, mashups and folksonomies.

Web 2.0 can be used for socialization, information sharing or distribution and for application

purposes. There are so many online communities like HR forum, Wiz IQ,Authorstream,MTC

,etc. which provide a platform for sharing knowledge and information among like minded people

or people belonging to same profession.

Social Networking Sites like Face book, Twitter, Orkut, Skype, LinkedIn and similar other sites

link people together irrespective of their interests and professions. On these sites people can post

widgets, blog, micro blog, Upload or download content in the form of documents, photos, music

and videos .Registered members can even tag photos, express their likes or dislikes about any

postings, give RSS feeds ,book mark pages and do many more things.

Apart from all these it also has many technical applications like working virtually without

physical presence, grid housing, content replication and the like.

ZENITH

International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research

Vol.2 Issue 2, February 2012, ISSN 2231 5780

ww

w.z

enit

hre

sear

ch.o

rg.in

2

85

FIGURE-3 INDICATES SOME OF THE APPLICATIONS OF WEB 2.0 FACILITATING

CYBER SLACKING IN ORGANIZATIONS-

WEB 2.0 APPLICATIONS FACILITATING CYBER BLUDGING

FIGURE-3: WEB 2.0 APPLICATIONS FACILITATING CYBER

SLACKING IN ORGANIZATIONS

Community

Forums

Blogs

Wikis

Q&A

IM/Chat

Social Networking

Sites (SNS)

Face book

Orkut

Twitter

Skype

Linked In

Participation

Open Add-ons

Content

contribution

Gestures

Collaboration

Socialization

Distribution

Application

Open Aplications

REST

SOAP

JSON

RSS

Others

Widgets

Badges

Web

widgets

Gadgets

Net Vibes

SNS

Syndication

RSS

ATOM

Book

marking

Galleries

Market places

Database

MY SQL

Postgre SQL

Oracle

Others

Application Tier

Gralls

Content

Python

Java-J2EE

Others

Miscellaneous

Virtual Works

Grid housing

PaaS

Content

Replication

Mobile

ZENITH

International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research

Vol.2 Issue 2, February 2012, ISSN 2231 5780

ww

w.z

enit

hre

sear

ch.o

rg.in

2

86

Employees‟ perspective of e-monitoring.

Employees find e-surveillance as an intrusion into their privacy at workplace. They feel

that surfing net during free time shouldn‟t be treated as cyber loafing. It leads to

relaxation and rejuvenation.

Monitoring leads to stress and increased blood pressure since employees feel that every

action of theirs is continuously monitored

E-monitoring injects suspicion and hostility in the workplace which may in turn lead to

employee resentment and Counter Productive Behaviour.

Employers should seek prior consent of the employees to monitor them as per the

Electronic Communications Privacy Act(ECPA) of 1986

E-surveillance can strain the relationship between an employee and an employer.

It demoralizes the employees and this may lead to a decline in their productivity

THE RATIONALE OF E-SURVEILLANCE

Despite the employees‟ concerns and some setbacks, more than 75 percent of the companies in

USA are adopting e- surveillance techniques to monitor their employees in order to discourage

them from using internet, telephone and other workplace tools for personal works. The

employers quote some valid reasons for e-monitoring in workplace. Some of them include-

To ensure that employees will not divulge with company trade secrets and intellectual

property during their communication with others.

To prevent employees from making any defamatory or derogatory remarks against the

company in their electronic correspondence.

Positive Negative

Productivity enhancement Privacy Intrusion

Security leads to stress

Legal Liability Hostility and resentment

To prevent data loss and theft Employee Turnover

Performance Review Loss of Trust

FIGURE 4: IMPLICATIONS OF E-SURVEILLANCE

ZENITH

International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research

Vol.2 Issue 2, February 2012, ISSN 2231 5780

ww

w.z

enit

hre

sear

ch.o

rg.in

2

87

To stop employees from using their work time and technology for personal use.

To prevent criminal activities in workplace

The Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) passed in 1986 as an extension of

the wiretap laws, permits employers to monitor electronic communications, such as e-

mails, in two situations: where the employee has consented to the monitoring, and where

the employer can show a legitimate business purpose for monitoring the employee e-

mails. Not surprisingly, it is this second instance that garners the most legal attention.

It can be used as a proactive measure to head off problematic employee behaviour before

it gets to a point where the company‟s business interests are affected.

To ensure data security while employees are engaged in social networking and while

using web 2.0 applications.

To prevent workplace inefficiencies, malware, data loss and viruses as the main threats

caused by insecure use of Web 2.0 applications like social networking, blogs and wikis.

Since the company owns the equipment and the office space, it has a right to monitor its

employees to prevent misuse of that equipment and space.

To have total control over the networked computers. Start or terminate remote processes,

run commands, copy files from remote systems or to even turn the computer off or restart

it, not to mention logging off the current user

To track possible file thefts by employees on their flash drives.

The employees should not expect privacy while using company email/internet facilities.

The employer‟s ownership of resources naturally entitles them to monitor the way they

want.

Considering all the above factors, e-surveillance system has become indispensible for

successful functioning of business organizations. It should become inherent policy in all

companies across the globe since the benefits or outcomes of workplace monitoring are

innumerable. Though initial resistance to monitoring is most likely to pop up, employees

must be sensitized about the increasing need for it in greater interest of the organization.

PERCEIVED BENEFITS OF E-SURVEILLANCE TO EMPLOYERS

It increases personnel productivity by eliminating personal use of internet, email,

social networks and by preventing employees wasting work time

It protects the company from intellectual property and trade secret theft.

Protects the company from indulging in fraudulent activities

ZENITH

International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research

Vol.2 Issue 2, February 2012, ISSN 2231 5780

ww

w.z

enit

hre

sear

ch.o

rg.in

2

88

Useful to maintain a record of organizations electronic communication to meet the

regulatory compliance requirements

E-surveillance facilitates the performance review of the employees based on their

telephone skills and communication skills

It also helps to determine the deficiencies of the employees and helps to identify their

training needs

It is useful for legal compliance and to meet the legal liability

Useful for quality control and improvement in the delivery of services

CONCLUSION

Both employees and employers have valid reasons to justify their claims but Firms should be

prudent while electronically monitoring employee e-mails and Internet activities. They should be

mindful of the delicate issues of trust and loyalty that should be addressed for smooth

functioning of the organization. E-surveillance requires proper planning; clear policies, and

detailed procedures.

Both opponents and proponents of monitoring agree that organizations need clear and definitive

policies on electronic surveillance, and that these policies should be frequently and clearly

communicated to employees. They also agree that employees should undergo formal training on

e-mail and Internet policies, proper usage, and conduct. Given the potential liability facing

organizations as a result of the misuse of technology and resources of the organization by the

employees, steps must be taken by managers and IT departments alike to mitigate the risks

involved in allowing employees unfettered access to the Internet and company email systems. e-

Surveillance system is indispensible in organizations since it secures the resources of the

organization against any external legal liability and also enhances productivity by avoiding

wastage of time through cyber bludging. Each and every organization in today‟s globalized era

has to implement e-surveillance for effective monitoring and control of their workforce.

References

1. Adams, H., S. Scheuing, & S. Feeley, (2000)” E-Mail Monitoring in the Workplace: The

Good, the Bad and the Ugly.” Defense Counsel Journal. 1, pg (32-46).

2. Agarwal, R., & F. Rodhain, (2002).” Mine or Ours: Email Privacy Expectations,

Employee Attitudes, and Perceived Work Environment Characteristics”. Proceedings of

the 35th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, Hawaii.

3. American Heritage Dictionary. 3rd Ed. (2000). Houghton Mifflin Company. Boston.

4. Arendt, L. (2004). Keeping an Eye on Employees. Corporate Report Wisconsin, 19,

pg(32-35).

ZENITH

International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research

Vol.2 Issue 2, February 2012, ISSN 2231 5780

ww

w.z

enit

hre

sear

ch.o

rg.in

2

89

5. August, R., G. Ferrera, S. Lichtenstein, Reder, M., & W. Schiano, (2001). Cyber law

Cincinnati, OH: South-Western College Publishing

6. Armstrong, Larry," Someone to Watch 0ver You," Business Week, ro, 689, July 10,2000,

pp. I 9-190,

7. Blakey v. Continental Airlines, Inc. (1998). 2 F. Supp. 2d 598, 603 (D.N.J. 1998).

8. Bouke v. Nissan Motor Co. (1993).No. B068705 (Cal. Court of App., 2nd Dist., July 26,

1993)

9. Chieh, C., & B. Kleiner, (2003). How Organizations Manage the Issue of Employee

Privacy

10. Today. Management Research News, 26, 82-88.

11. CIO Magazine. (1997). Pushing It. May 1, Retrieved April 10, 2005, from:

12. Evers, J. (2005). Panel paints grim picture of cybercrime battle. News.com, June 1.

13. Greenlaw, Paul S., and Prudeanu, Cornelia. "The Impact of Federal Legislation to Limit

Electronic Monitoring." Public Personnel Management 26, 2 (June 22, 1997) p. 227.

14. Hodson, T., F. Englander, & V. Englander, (1999). Ethical, Legal, and Economic Aspects

of Employee Monitoring of Employee Email. Journal of Business Ethics, 1, 99-108.

15. Information Week Online. (2000). Push Technology Matures – And Makes A Comeback.

July 10, Retrieved April 10, 2005, from:

http://www.informationweek.com/794/portal.htm

16. Juline E.Miles & Bo Hu & Srikanth Beldona & Joan Clay “Cyberslacking! A Liability

issue for Wired Workplaces:The Internet has brought more than distraction to the

workplace.Employee”,Cornell Hotel & Restaurant Administration Quarterly, Oct-

Nov,2001

17. Kovach, K., J. Jordon, K. Tansey, & E. Framinan, (2000). The Balance Between

Employee Privacy and Employer Interests. Business and Society Review, 2, 289-298.

18. Lichtash, A., (2004). Inappropriate Use of E-mail and the Internet in the Workplace: The

Arbitration Picture. Dispute Resolution Journal, 59, 26-36.

19. Liebert, M., (2004). Development of a Measure of Personal Web Usage in the Workplace

CyberPsychology & Behavior, 7, 93-104.

20. Manning, Rita C. "Liberal and Communitarian Defenses of Workplace Privacy." Journal

of Business Ethics 6, 8 (June 1997) p. 817.

ZENITH

International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research

Vol.2 Issue 2, February 2012, ISSN 2231 5780

ww

w.z

enit

hre

sear

ch.o

rg.in

2

90

21. Martin, K., & R. Freeman, (2003). Some Problems with Employee Monitoring. Journal

of Business Ethics. 4, 353 –361.

22. Miller, S., & J. Weckert, (2000). Privacy, the Workplace and the Internet Journal of

Business Ethics, 28, 255-265

23. Morris, F., (2003). The Electronic Platform: Email and Other Privacy Issues in the

Workplace Computer and Internet Lawyer, 20, 1-9.

24. Muhl, C., (2003). Workplace e-mail and Internet use: employees and employers beware.

Monthly Labor Review. 2, 36-45.

25. Patton, S. (2004). Privacy is Your Business. CIO, June 1.

26. Policy, S., (2000). Employer monitoring of employee Internet and email use: An

Effective Litigation Avoidance Tool. Computer and Internet Law, 17, 21-23.

27. Richman, D (2005). E-mails sent at work anything but private. (March 9) The Seattle

Post-Intellgencerhttp://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/215147_email09.html

28. Segarnick, K. (2002). Courts Say It‟s Ok: Peep away. CIO, June 1.

29. Smith, A., & R. Faley, (2001). Email Workplace Privacy Issues in an Information-and

Knowledge-based Environment Southern Business Review, 27, 8-22.