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Company networks and computers belong to a business and are installed for the purposes of business transactions. This being the case, employers have the right to ensure this equipment is being used properly. It should be perfectly within an employer's authority to make certain computers are primarily utilized for work purposes. Monitoring employee Internet usage is a way to ensure no abuse of property occurs.

When the Internet was first integrated into the workplace, many companies didn't put a lot of stock into developing technology policies and allowed staff liberal Internet usage. Unfortunately, that liberal usage evolved into abuse of work time and equipment. In many workplaces today people constantly check various personal items online.

This distraction has significantly impacted performance and productivity, and employers have sat up and taken notice. Studies have shown that employees are increasingly spending work hours playing games, banking, paying bills and sending personal emails. As many as 45% of employers in major U.S. firms monitor employee electronic communications. (Introna, pg 476/Spinello & Tavani).

The controversy of whether a company has the right to monitor Internet use is a volatile one. There are two primary reasons why employers are now tightening the reigns on Internet privileges: increased risk of spyware, viruses and other Malware, and employee abuse

As networks grow the risk of Malware has increased significantly and employees who do non-business related surfing have a higher incidence of infecting company computers. It makes good business sense to create a company policy that outlines technology usage and monitoring usage guarantees it is being adhered to. Any infection could significantly impact company computers and create "down time". Offline time harms business being conducted and it is costly in terms of time and resources to fix problems.

Employee abuse is another reason employers are getting strict. I can recall a time I had to go to another office location in my company on business for my boss and my task required some assistance. The employee didn't realize I worked for the company, and the staff member had me wait a full five minutes before she would give me attention. What she also didn't realize was I could see what she was doing from across the counter. During the entire wait time she was surfing the Weight Watchers website!

Unfortunately, employees who have a tendency to abuse Internet privileges at work are precisely the reason why employers monitor what staff does on the Internet. Employers are paying an employee with the expectation of work done, not for time to "surf the web".

Employees should have the right to privacy, yet on the same token they should respect the workplace and not abuse the Internet. There are many offices that do still allow liberal policies, but their employees also realize that they can't spend their day surfing the web and don't abuse this privilege. Respect goes both ways.

The bottom line is the computers and networks they are connected to are company property, so when it comes to "rights", it is the company's right to make this decision. The workplace is an environment to work, if you are worried about your electronic privacy, do your personal business at home.

Reference:
Readings in Cyber Ethics, Spinello and Tavani, pg 476

Learn more about this author, Leigh Goessl.
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