To Track or Not to Track

How many of us take Internet access for granted?  I know I do, I expect to have the Internet at work, it has become a “given.”  But after many recent conversations with colleagues in different industries, I have learned that there is an ongoing trend of Internet Limitations or tracking at workplaces throughout the country.

Many companies filter who has Internet access.  One colleague of mine who sits at a Director level had to fill out a form and have it signed by his boss requesting Internet access indicating the reasons he would need Internet.  This was 3 weeks ago and he is still waiting approval.

What is the issue at hand?  Employees doing personal surfing instead of working or security of the company server?  I am guessing it is a combination of the two.  We can all admit to doing some personal surfing or banking or whatever it may be at work at one point or another.  I think the bigger issue at hand is protecting the company’s system.

I think every company I have worked with over the years has had some sort of worm that was contracted through a download by an employee that infected the entire system.  Clearly there are many issues when this happens.  The biggest problem other than finding and cleaning the system is when this happens, the “company is down” for the day(s).  When this has happened to me in the past, it has cut me off from email for sometimes days and that equates to lost business and lost revenue.

Companies are getting smarter and are taking extra measures against incidents like these happening.  But where do you draw the line as a company?  Restricted sites?  Email Warnings of every virus that is out there?  Policies?  Tracking software on every computer?

I had a boss in my past life that later told me she used to track me every day on my computer.  I didn’t believe her until she told me about my Yahoo Messenger tendencies and friends I would talk to randomly throughout the day.  This was my first encounter with tracking software.  I had always heard of it and every company I worked for or with always said they had it, but I assumed it was a scare tactic.  Clearly software that tracks your usage is readily available and becoming more widely used.

Just google “email tracking software.”  There are pages of free information and trials.  Some allow you to track your emails, down to the IP address of the computer it was sent from and when it was received and read.  A lot of this software almost seems like a FedEx tracking number for emails.  While I think this could be useful in some industries, for me I use the delivery and read receipts in Microsoft Outlook.  This provides me with the information I need in order to conduct business and track my emails in my world. 

Then there is other tracking software of various shapes and sizes.  Some companies are using this approach.  These types of software are not free and require purchase and often times acquisition of a license if putting it on multiple computers or networks.  These types of tracking software can do everything from block various sites, messenger and chat rooms and allow you to run custom reports to find out exactly what has been done on the particular computer in a day/week/month (etc).  Additional features allow the administrator to receive updates via email as this behavior is happening.

How do you determine what is right for you?  For me, I use email tracking and am a firm believer in restricting sites, updating policies, administering counseling if Internet policy is breached and a worm is contracted due to personal use or an illegal download that was prohibited.  I am not quite at the point where I need actual tracking software, but should I own a multi-million dollar operation later in life, I may reconsider my needs at that time.  Tracking not only is becoming a way of the future, but also more affordable.  If you have the needs, be sure to have the  means – the ability to not only buy the software, but the staff to track it or an IT consultant on board.  The biggest mistake, we as employers make at times is to not have the follow-through in order to protect our investments.  In this economy, I think we are all continuously striving to be better at this.