Can Your Employer Monitor Your PC Without Your Knowledge?
The rise of remote work and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies at work have blurred the lines between professional and personal usage of computers. So, it’s normal for employees to be concerned about whether employers can monitor them without their knowledge.
Surprisingly, employers can monitor your PC without your knowledge if your device is using the work internet, if you have given them permission via an employee contract, or if you are using a work-issued PC.
This article talks in more detail about whether employers can monitor your PC without your knowledge and whether it is legal for them to do so.
Can Your Employer Monitor Your PC Without Your Knowledge?
Yes, your employer has the legal right to monitor your computer in three scenarios:
Work Internet
Connecting your personal computer to the company network opens it up to monitoring by your supervisors. The same holds for your mobile devices and other non-work related gadgets that you bring into the office and connect to the network.
This is possible because your company may have firewalls or other monitoring tools placed between your computer and the company’s network. In this way, all network activity in the office, whether from a company-issued computer or a personal one, may be tracked and stored for analysis.
Even if you are using a computer or phone that is not provided by the company, your employer may nonetheless access the information. This includes the instant messages you send to your family, the visits you make to a website that lists job openings, or the photos you put on Facebook. Your supervisor will be able to see everything.
Consent
Your employer has the right to monitor your digital activity if you have permitted them to do so. Now, you might think that this is something you will never do. Who would willingly give someone access to their computer to conduct surveillance on them?
Well, the thing is, they don’t need to provide explicit consent. Employers have the option of requesting that their remote workers download software, such as Wolfeye, which may monitor a variety of things like the following:
- Social media usage
- Digital displays
- Webcam monitoring
When an employee downloads such software, their consent is implied. Using the appropriate software, management can view if employees are using their time in the office appropriately.
Work-Issued Devices
Few people seem to mind if their employers monitor them on their work laptops. Since these gadgets are provided by the company for business use only, employers should not expect any degree of privacy while using them.
It is in your best interest to operate under the assumption that your employers have set up employee monitoring applications on devices used in the workplace.
Furthermore, it’s common for companies to have access to emails you send and receive via company-issued email accounts.
This is done to ensure that the conversations and interactions that take place within messaging accounts remain professional and to protect you from cyberbullying and other forms of online intimidation.
Since many companies now require employees to bring their own devices to work, such as through work-from-home or bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policies, it has become common practice for employers to install tracking software on those devices.
It records different things for different companies depending on their policies and the software they use, but you can typically find out what it tracks via the consent form or the corporate policy.
What Can Your Employer Track?
Few people seem to mind if their employers monitor them on their work laptops. Since these gadgets are provided by the company for business use only, employers should not expect any degree of privacy while using them.
It is in your best interest to operate under the assumption that your employers have set up employee monitoring applications on devices used in the workplace.
Furthermore, it’s common for companies to have access to emails you send and receive via company-issued email accounts.
This is done to ensure that the conversations and interactions that take place within messaging accounts remain professional and to protect you from cyberbullying and other forms of online intimidation.
Since many companies now require employees to bring their own devices to work, such as through work-from-home or bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policies, it has become common practice for employers to install tracking software on those devices.
It records different things for different companies depending on their policies and the software they use, but you can typically find out what it tracks via the consent form or the corporate policy.
What Can Your Employer Track?
With the right tools, your employer may be able to keep track of the following:
Emails
Both Google and Microsoft have stated that authorized administrators can read all of your outgoing and incoming emails if your firm uses an enterprise account with their service. However, the software giant Microsoft “does not agree with using technology to spy on people at work.”
If an employee uses their work and personal email accounts on the same computer, a business that uses monitoring software like Wolfeye can read the contents, subject lines, and attachments of both accounts.
Employers can restrict data collection from employees’ inboxes by instructing the tool not to read messages received through a user’s web browser. The business needs to be careful with the software since it can be exploited like any other tool.
Activity
Wolfeye can also monitor your computer’s keyboard and mouse to determine whether or not you’re actually working. If you surf through social media for an excessive amount of time, your activity may be reported.
Employees who use Wolfeye can impose limits on their social media time, such as “no longer than five minutes of a social media platform at a time” or “no more than an hour of social media a day.”
Then, when the software is active, it will be able to track your social media usage, including your activity there and the total amount of time spent.
For privacy reasons, some businesses provide exceptions for employees’ use of specific social media apps and sites. Wolfeye can capture periodic screenshots of your desktop in order to monitor your activity.
Visited Websites List
Privacy experts agree that if you are using a computer provided by your employer, they will most likely be able to monitor any traffic that is not encrypted. If you’re using a personal device and routing your traffic over a workplace network, your employer may be able to see what you’re doing.
Be careful about the sites you visit when using the company’s Internet connection, whether you’re at the office or not. Even if your company can’t see what you did on a website, it probably knows that you visited the site. Furthermore, employee monitoring software like Wolfeye is also known for providing employees with a list of their employee’s visited websites.
Employee Collaboration Tools
According to Slack’s export regulations, your employer can request to export communications from private chats and direct messages if they are the owner of the Slack workspace in question.
Slack stated it would permit the exporting of private chats only if an employer has a “right within applicable laws.” However, in the United States, corporations are permitted to monitor employee conversations that occur in the “normal course” of employment.
As a result, Slack is unlikely to refuse the request, especially if you have signed an agreement specifying the employer’s right to your messages.
Slack can also record how often you use the app. Imagine you spent the day doing other activities without asking for time off. In such a case, Slack will be able to show your employer the amount of time you spend away from work.
Computer monitoring software like Wolfeye can also record your video conferencing sessions. Wolfeye is capable of capturing audio and video from a variety of platforms, including Zoom, Webex, and Microsoft Teams.
Work Environment
Your family members may be subject to employee surveillance even if they do not work for the company. Software like Wolfeye is able to capture data from the microphone and speakers on your computer, and as a result, it is able to record the background noise in your home office.
Is Your Boss Required to Disclose Their Tracking?
In all likelihood, you agreed to this monitoring as part of your employment contract. If you want to find out whether or not your company is tracking your every step while you are at work, the easiest way to do so is to ask them about it directly.
There are only a handful of states that mandate companies to inform workers whether they are monitoring their computer activities, and Delaware and Connecticut are two of them.
However, such states are the outliers, not the norm. Usually, firms aren’t obligated to provide you with notice, but if they do, it’s typically written into the paperwork you signed when you accepted the position.
If it’s written into your contract, your employer can access whatever you type, see, and do on company-issued devices. This includes everything from your emails to the websites you visit.
Thankfully, a lot of businesses take a birds-eye view of things rather than focusing on each employee separately.
If management notices a widespread problem with employees not putting in their full effort, it may reconsider its policies as a whole rather than take any disciplinary action against any one person.
Laws Concerning Employee Monitoring
In most cases, workers do not have many legal protections or rights to their privacy.
While you are on the job, your supervisor has almost entirely unrestricted authority to monitor you in any way they see fit to make sure that you are carrying out your responsibilities in a manner that corresponds with the standards set out by the organization.
There are certain laws on the federal level that safeguard your privacy, but in most cases, such protections do not apply to work-related activities.
For instance, according to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), your employer is prohibited from reading your private emails without a court order. However, the rule is only applicable to providers of electronic communications services (ECS), such as Gmail, Yahoo, and Outlook; it does not apply to employers.
You may also have some protection under the Federal Wiretap Act (FWA), but again, this law only steps in under very particular conditions. It is against the law under the FWA to listen in on “any wire, oral, or electronic communication” without the permission of at least one person who is involved.
However, the legislation makes an exception for employers.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) states that employers are allowed to undertake video and audio monitoring of workplaces and employee discussions “if the employer gives notice to its employees that they should have no expectation of privacy in the workplace.”
To put it another way, your manager has the right to eavesdrop on and record any work-related communication, provided that they inform you that they are doing so.
The bottom line is that your superiors can usually monitor all of your actions. Almost all kinds of monitoring of employees are allowed.
Concerns When Implementing Employee Surveillance
There are certain concerns when monitoring employees without their knowledge that all employers must be aware of and should address.
Privacy Concerns
Privacy is an issue since it is easy to imagine situations in which an employer could make use of the data from an employee’s daily activities in an inappropriate or unlawful way.
A worker’s medical or financial data may be accidentally captured by monitoring software since it can take periodic screenshots or record videos without the worker knowing it’s happening. The data collected by tools like Wolfeye can include everything from instant conversations to social media posts.
Concerns have also been raised about the potential for algorithmic suggestions based on machine learning to reinforce existing socioeconomic, gender, or racial inequities if the program uses such data to generate productivity statistics.
In addition, smaller companies that rely on their employees’ professional judgment may not have the resources to construct a barrier between middle management with ill intent and the administrator who holds control of the communication tools.
No doubt, there are a number of tasks that call for monitoring for reasons relating to safety, compliance, finances, or intellectual property. But even in that scenario, businesses can save money and time by purchasing specialized software that is tailored specifically to their needs.
The best practice is for employers to be transparent about the types of information they gather, how long they keep that information, and the conditions under which they might review that information. As an employee, if you do not have access to this information, it is in your best interest to inquire about the company’s policies in order to obtain additional details.
Mistrust and Demotivated Staff
Workers lose faith in management and lose motivation when they find out that they are being monitored. When it comes to motivating a hardworking employee, healthy mechanisms that reward productivity are far more effective than mere surveillance.
The company’s use of monitoring software is more likely to be fruitful if its administrators are open about the tools they’re employing, their rationale for doing so, how they’re putting them to use, and the results they’ve seen so far.
Conclusion
So, while it is possible for employers to monitor their employees’ PCs, this is a risky territory as it can bring about various privacy concerns and foster an unhealthy work environment. Employers should consider these risks carefully before implementing such monitoring.