What are the top concerns for employers monitoring employee computer usage?

Employers that monitor employee computer usage are primarily concerned about inappropriate Web surfing, with 66 percent monitoring Internet connections. Sixty-five percent of companies use software to block connections to inappropriate Websites-a 21 percent increase since 2001.

Employers who block access to the Web are concerned about employees visiting the following types of sites:

• adult sites with sexual, romantic or pornographic content (96 percent);

• game sites (61 percent);

• social networking sites (50 percent);

• entertainment sites (40 percent);

• shopping/auction sites (27 percent); and

• sports sites (21 percent).

In addition, 18 percent of companies use URL blocks to stop employees from visiting external blogs.

Forms of monitoring. Computer monitoring takes many forms, with 45 percent of employers tracking content, keystrokes, and time spent at the keyboard. Forty-three percent of employers store and review computer files. In addition, 12 percent monitor the blogosphere to see what is being written about the company, and another 10 percent monitor social networking sites.

Of the 43 percent of companies that monitor e-mail, 73 percent use technology tools to automatically monitor e-mail and 40 percent assign an individual to manually read and review e-mail.

Source:2007 Electronic Monitoring & Surveillance Survey from American Management Association (AMA) and The ePolicy Institute.