Thursday, November 01, 2012

How bosses spy on employees and what can you do about it?

In a connected world, it is easy to know what you are up to. Your office place can be monitored using hidden cameras, the computer that you use can be easily spied upon. And you would never know till you are confronted with proof that you have been found visiting 'x' or 'y' website. This is extremely convenient in these times of recession -- organizations can keep mountains of evidence against you and use it when they need to.
Your location can also be tracked easily using sophisticated services such as World Tracker (www.world-tracker.com). This service which just needs a single confirmatory text from your phone can reveal your location to your employers. Nowadays, when companies give employees phones, this software could be pre-installed.

Technology is truly rapidly advancing. For example, a company called eTelemetry can not only prevent illegal downloads but can also correlate your IP address, machine location and other location related data - to make it easier for your organization to track you down in case of any violation.

In some companies, organizations also monitor the number of times that you gain entry or leave your office. This is backed by surveillance cameras which provide video related evidence.

How can you protect yourself
First and foremost, do not do anything that you will be ashamed of later. If you really want to surf, use proxies or use 'private browsing' feature in browsers such as Firefox. Do not send personal or funny joke e-mails to your colleagues using your official e-mail - you never know how it can be used against you.