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Chapter 4 Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems 179

INTERACTIVE SESSION: ORGANIZATIONS

MONITORING IN THE WORKPLACE

There may be only 11 players on the pitch during a dards require access to credit card information. As
match, but the Blackburn Rovers Football Club in the Spector 360 tracks and records all data to do with credit
UK employs more than 800 people. As with any mod- card transactions, the information can be easily recov-
ern organization, computers are at the heart of run- ered.
ning an efficient business. Most of the club’s comput- However, what is the wider view of the monitor-
ers are housed with the administration department at ing of employees in the workplace? According to the
the Ewood Park office, but others can be found at the Citizens Advice Bureau (a free information and advice
club’s training center and soccer academy. service for UK residents), the following are some of the
The club decided to install a software product called ways that employers monitor their employees in the
Spector 360, which it obtained from the Manchester- workplace: recording the workplace on CCTV cameras;
based company Snapguard. According to Snapguard’s opening mail or e-mail; using automated software to
sales literature, the product enables company-wide check e-mail; checking telephone logs or recording
monitoring of employee PC and Internet usage. telephone calls; checking logs of Web sites visited; vid-
Previously, the club had tried to introduce an accept- eoing outside the workplace; getting information from
able use policy (AUP), but initial discussions with credit reference agencies; and collecting information
employees stalled, and the policy was never imple- from point-of-sale terminals.
mented. Early trials of Spector 360 showed that some Although this list may look formidable, there is no
employees were abusing the easygoing nature of the argument that the employer has a right to ensure that
workplace to spend most of their day surfing the Web, his or her employees are behaving in a manner that is
using social networking sites, and taking up a huge not illegal or harmful to the company. However, under
amount of bandwidth for downloads. UK data protection law the employer must ensure
Before officially implementing the monitoring soft- that the monitoring is justified and take into account
ware, the AUP was resurrected. It was sent out as an any negative effects the monitoring may have on staff.
e-mail attachment and added to the staff handbook. Monitoring for the sake of it is not allowed. Secret
The policy was also made part of the terms and condi- monitoring without employees’ knowledge is usually
tions of employment. Understandably, some employ- illegal.
ees were annoyed at the concept of being watched, In a case that went before the European Court
but the software was installed anyway. According to of Human Rights in 2007 (Copeland v the United
Ben Hayler, senior systems administrator at Blackburn Kingdom), Ms. Copeland, who was an employee of
Rovers, Spector 360 has definitely restored order, Carmarthenshire College, claimed that her privacy
increasing productivity and reducing activity on non- had been violated. She was a personal assistant to the
business apps. principal and also worked closely with the deputy
Reports provided by Spector 360 can show manag- principal, who instigated monitoring and analysis
ers the following: excessive use of Facebook, Twitter, of her telephone bills, Web sites visited, and e-mail
and other social networking sites; visits to adult sites communication. The deputy principal wanted to
or shopping sites; use of chat services; the printing or determine whether Copeland was making excessive
saving of confidential information; and staff login and use of the college’s services. The European Court
logout times. Managers can also use the software to ruled in her favor, stating that her personal Internet
drill-down to look at patterns of usage, generate screen usage was deemed to be under the definitions of the
snapshots, or even log individual keystrokes. Convention for the Protection of Rights, covered as
The software can also be used to benefit employ- “private life.” Note that although this case came to
ees. For example, because it can log exactly what an the court in 2007, the monitoring took place in 1999,
employee is doing, the system can help in staff train- prior to the introduction into English and Welsh law of
ing and troubleshooting, because it is easy to track the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 and
exactly what caused a particular problem to occur. the Telecommunications (Lawful Business Practice)
Another important benefit of the software is that Regulations 2001, which seek to clarify regulations
it helps the club to stay compliant with the Payment about the interception of communications.
Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard. PCI stan-

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