2005 Electronic Monitoring & Surveillance Survey: Many Companies Monitoring, Recording, Videotaping–and Firing–Employees
Global Satellite Positioning & Emerging Surveillance Technology:
Employers have been slow to adopt emerging monitoring and surveillance technologies to help track employee productivity and movement. Employers who use Assisted Global Positioning or Global Positioning Systems satellite technology are in the minority, with only 5% using GPS to monitor cell phones; 8% using GPS to track company vehicles; and 8% using GSP to monitor employee ID/Smartcards.
The majority (53%) of companies employ Smartcard technology to control physical security and access to buildings and data centers. Trailing far behind is the use of technology that enables fingerprint scans (5%), facial recognition (2%), and iris scans (0.5%).
The 2005 Electronic Monitoring & Surveillance Survey is co-sponsored by American Management Association (www.amanet.org[2]) and The ePolicy Institute (www.epolicyinstitute.com[3]). A total of 526 U.S. companies participated: 23% represent companies employing 100 or fewer workers, 101-500 employees (25%), 501-1,000 (10%), 1,001-2,500 (13%), 2,501-5,000 (7%) and 5,001 or more (22%). In 2004, 840 U.S. businesses participated in the 2004 Workplace E-Mail & IM Survey from American Management Association and The ePolicy Institute. In 2001, 435 U.S. companies participated in the 2001 Electronic Policies & Procedures Survey from American Management Association and The ePolicy Institute.
The 2005 Electronic Monitoring & Surveillance Survey summary, interviews, and real-life e-mail, IM, blogging, and Internet disaster stories available upon request. Media wishing to receive review copies of Nancy Flynn’s latest books, Instant Messaging Rules: A Business Guide to Managing Policies, Security, and Legal Issues for Safe IM Communication (AMACOM Books 2004) or E-Mail Rules: A Business Guide to Managing Policies, Security, and Legal Issues for E-Mail and Digital Communication (AMACOM Books 2003) should contact AMACOM’s Irene Majuk (212-903-8087 or imajuk@amanet.org[4]). Contact AMA’s Roger Kelleher (212-903-7976 or rkelleher@amanet.org[5]) for survey summary. Contact the ePolicy Institute’s Nancy Flynn (614-451-3200 or nancy@epolicyinstitute.com[6]) for e-mail, IM, blogging and Internet policy, best practices and disaster stories.