The Two Sides of Internet Monitoring

No one wants to live or work under a regime where they know they’re being watched or monitored constantly. That is perhaps one of the biggest arguments against installing internet filtering software. Read on to find out more.

No one wants to live or work under a regime where they know they’re being watched or monitored constantly. That is perhaps one of the biggest arguments against installing internet filtering software. Read on to find out more.

What exactly do we need to address? - The proponents of privacy laws do have a case when they argue against internet monitoring software saying that a person, whether at work or at home, should have complete control over his privacy. But are things that one dimensional in these arguments? There surely has to be another side to internet monitoring. If it is a “bad” thing, then why is it being used to be a watchdog to internet usage? Can too much internet usage at the workplace perhaps be a “worse” thing? Let us address these issues here.

Block or Monitor? – Although both blocking content and monitoring them can be considered to be tools of the “bosses”, they are actually very different and they say a lot about the different kinds of bosses. If you use internet monitoring software to strictly block some content on the web like social networking sites, movie streaming sites and email clients like MSN and Gmail, then it reflects a fascist, iron curtain-like attitude which clearly sends a message to the workforce that their browsing is blocked and restricted, almost similar to the blockade people face in countries like North Korea and China. Internet usage monitoring on the other hand tells the workforce that that online activity is being watched and so their privacy has gone for a toss. However, the latter method encourages a kind of self monitoring in the long turn whereby the need for such internet monitoring software disappears.

The Staff’s Responsibility – Before we start making accusations on the bosses about making things difficult for the people at work by installing internet usage monitoring tools, we also need to acknowledge the fact that the main purpose of coming to work is “working” and not spending hours on reconnecting with your high school friends online or downloading the latest movies or music onto your hardware. This is very clearly a sort of exploitation of the office resources. The point we are trying to make over here is that you can only cry foul over censorship if you have not done anything wrong. The bosses will not censor content or install internet monitoring software if the workforce does not indulge in these distractions.