Do you support employee digital monitoring programs?

Employers can implement effective cybersecurity that increases visibility, reduces insider threat risk, and that respects employees’ privacy while gaining their support, according to Dtex Systems.

To achieve this, monitoring should be conducted with:

• Openness and transparency — make sure employees know what’s taking place
• Focus on security — monitor activities to reduce security risk, don’t use tools that eavesdrop
• Data anonymization — only review and analyze data after a threat has been detected.

“The world has lost its tolerance for deceptive data practices, aggressive surveillance and privacy invasions. It’s also become more lawless; Edward Snowden, Waymo vs. Uber and the insider who sabotaged Tesla are stark reminders of this reality,” said Christy Wyatt, CEO, Dtex Systems. “This survey shows that Americans understand the situation and expect their employers to maintain a level of security that protects them and their jobs. It also shows that Americans who expect to have their privacy protected will reject legacy monitoring technologies that record their every keystroke and record everything they do.”

Additional top findings revealed by the survey included:

• 45% of Americans believe it is sometimes, often or always acceptable for employers to monitor employees’ digital activities to protect against security threats and data breaches.
• 64% of Americans somewhat to strongly agree that employers have the right to monitor employees’ digital activities on personal or work-issued devices used to conduct work for security purposes, as long as they are transparent about it and let employees know up front that it is taking place.
• 77% of employed Americans would be less concerned with their employer monitoring their digital activity on personal or work-issued devices they use to conduct work, as long as they are transparent about it and let them know up front.
• 71% of Americans would not accept a job with an employer that monitors its employees’ digital activities on work-issued or personal devices they use to conduct work without letting employees know about monitoring up front.
• 70% of Americans somewhat to strongly agree that they would consider leaving an employer if they found out that the employer was monitoring their digital activities on work-issued devices they use to conduct work without telling them up front.
• 62% of employed Americans would be comfortable with their employer monitoring their digital activities taking place on work-issued devices if it was for security purposes and the activity data was anonymized (i.e., the employer would only look at it if suspicious or threatening behaviors were detected). 36% of employed Americans feel the same about employer monitoring on personal devices.