Do You Monitor Your Employees?
A new system from AT&T (NYSE: T) introduces the era of low-cost Big Brother surveillance. Is this something CIOs should be interested in -- or afraid of?
In our most recent InformationWeek Information Security Survey 2007, more than 1,100 technology and security managers in the United States were asked if they monitor their employees' activities. The most surprising result -- to me, at least -- is that more than a quarter, 27%, responded "we don't monitor employees." The most popular positive responses, somewhat less surprisingly, involve e-mail usage (51%) and Web site usage (40%). And another 25% responded that they monitor "time in office," which could be interpreted as the use of a simple system for clocking in and out of the office. Or it could mean the use of video surveillance.
Video surveillance in the workplace is a highly charged topic. Today the Seattle Post-Intelligencer ran an article about Boeing's widespread and aggressive practice of monitoring employees, including the use of video surveillance.
