WORKPLACE Keeping tabs on Internet roaming

Corporations are monitoring employees who surf for sports, shopping and porn.
MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL
Big Brother works in an out-of-the-way basement office in Wauwatosa, Wis.
When it comes to the Internet wanderings of some 2,400 Children's Health System workers, Charles Klawans is an information security officer with technology tools that make him all-knowing and all-powerful.
A growing number of corporations are turning to Internet-control software as worries mount about a dark side of the technology. It turns out that the worker productivity revolution it triggered is all the more amazing because employees who are supposed to be working too often are using company computers to surf for porn, dally at online shopping sites or seek jackpots with Internet gambling.
Just look at how the business of love booms from 9 to 5: Online dating sites log 35 percent of their traffic during the workday, according to comScore Media Metrix, an Internet analysis firm that found 7.9 million at-work users of personals Web sites last December alone.
Corporations are cracking down.
Increasing monitoring
More than three-fourths of the nation's major companies monitor employee e-mails, Internet connections and computer files, a figure that has doubled since 1997, according to the American Management Association. Websense Inc., one of the top Internet management software firms, has seen its sales soar from about $9 million in 1999 to $61 million last year.
As Children's Health System executives found when they sought new tracking and blocking software two years ago, buying and installing the technology is the easiest part. Crafting new computer usage policies forces a confrontation with an increasingly troublesome dilemma of the digital age: How far should companies go with cybersnooping to counter cyberslacking?
"The worst aspect for me is that it looks to the users like we don't trust them, that we are baby-sitting them and that Big Brother is controlling all this," Klawans said. "We get told all of that. We want the staff to have everything they need access to, but we want to do what we can to keep out the bad stuff."
Concerns
While they agree the risks are real, worker advocates worry that the available technology is so powerful and privacy laws so lax that some companies will go too far. Counting every keystroke and watching every Web page that pops up on an employee's computer screen could create an oppressive office atmosphere, said George Walls, president of Milwaukee's Local 4603 of the Communications Workers of America.
"They are far more aggressive than they ever have been in the past," Walls said. "Virtually every minute of every day they can tell what you are doing. With all the monitoring, it is turning into an electronic sweatshop."
Many employees are giving in to those temptations.
Surveys that Websense commissioned sketch a picture sure to leave bosses understandably concerned:
U24 percent of workers admitted shopping online while at work at least once a month.
U27 percent admitted going to online stock trading sites at work at least once a month.
U30 percent admitted watching sports online at work at least once a month.
Potential problems
While pornography sites generally are not thought to attract the same volume of traffic, even a few incidents could have severe ramifications. A sexually explicit image appearing on a computer screen is sure to cause more of a stir in the office than if a co-worker walked by and saw someone submitting an eBay bid.
Sexual harassment complaints and lost productivity are not the only problems.
Employees' downloading large music files or viewing online video can clog a corporate network, eroding expensive data storage capacity or slowing performance.
As if all these possibilities were not enough cause for worry, security is a major vulnerability. Some of the most damaging computer viruses are transmitted via Web pages.
Once a worker steps into the office, he has few legal protections of his privacy.
The courts have given wide latitude to companies in the control of how company equipment is used on company time.
Smart employers, however, will not track every single word an employee types or utters on the job just because they can, said Ellen Bravo, director of 9to5, National Association of Working Women.
"Spying is something you do to the enemy," Bravo said from the Milwaukee headquarters of 9to5. Electronic surveillance should be only one tool a company uses to maintain an efficient and positive workplace, she said.
"Good hiring and good training practices are the most important ingredient in this," Bravo said. "Screen well, train well and supervise well."