The
online activities of 27 million employees worldwide are now being monitored,
according to the Privacy Foundation.
The
foundation’s Workplace Surveillance Project estimates that email and Internet
monitoring is costing over £70 million a year.
It
claims that employers are encouraged by cheaper monitoring technology, rather
than by productivity issues.
Andrew
Schulman, chief researcher for the Privacy Foundation’s Workplace Surveillance
Project, urges employers to warn employees if they are being watched.
He
said, “Companies and government agencies are basing firing and suspension
decisions on the employee-monitoring reports. Yet employees are generally not
told beforehand what information will be gathered and how it will be judged.”
