Work tracking internet history?

[prj1865]

Yep you can report on exactly what sites you have visited and roughly how long you have spent on each one.

I manage the internet filters for a large organisation, people regularly get called to HR to try and explain their web history. As we block a lot of categories it tends to be for volume (time) rather than content.

On most of the cases i'm past caring if they get the sack or not. If you are paid to be at work and are spending hours a day chilling out on the internet then you get
what you deserve!

 

[DirtyJester]

Unless you are spending most of the day on the internet or looking/doing “naughty stuff” then I wouldn't start worrying about it.

Whaaaaaaaaaat cameras in the toilets now too!

 

[Tefal]

Harrods was the worst.

Every website on the entire internet blocked apart from their own. I hated that place. Two weeks and I was out.

the scum expecting you to work while they're paying you eh?

 

['Harry]

On most of the cases i'm past caring if they get the sack or not. If you are paid to be at work and are spending hours a day chilling out on the internet then you get
what you deserve!

+1

There to work, not to web browse. If I done nothing for hours at a time my ass would be out the door. Guess it's a bit more obvious when you actually work for a living instead of sit in front of a PC all day though.

 

[Fluke?]

One of the teaching staff moaned (and moaned and moaned) the other week that our nazi internet was worse than that in China. We also have a personal vendetta against him too, apparently .
Some people seriously think we go through *all* the websites and block them one by one. :/

 

[aln]

Yes, it's easy.
They're probably already doing it.
It's unlikely they're reading it.
You should assume they store it, at least for a while.

As already said, this is only likely to be used against you if someone wants rid of you, but alas, if your'e in that situation you're usually better off being employed somewhere else anyway.

the scum expecting you to work while they're paying you eh?

They could, you know, judge and pay you based on levels of work output, as opposed to the process you go through achieving this. Really, many jobs will benefit from the ability to use the Internet, and that can be completely misrepresented by looking at the logs alone. Also, who really cares if someone is only giving you 50% of effort if their 50% is 10% better than what everyone else is giving you? Personally, if I worked in an office, I'd be happy for them to log all they want. If they'd fire me for hitting OCuk and not because I'm actually under performing, I'd dare say it's their loss for making stupid decisions. If they use the former as an excuse to fire for the latter, then fair enough.

 

[Housey]

Guess it's a bit more obvious when you actually work for a living instead of sit in front of a PC all day though.

Wow...

 

[Tefal]

They could, you know, judge and pay you based on levels of work output, as opposed to the process you go through achieving this. Really, many jobs will benefit from the ability to use the Internet, and that can be completely misrepresented by looking at the logs alone. Also, who really cares if someone is only giving you 50% of effort if their 50% is 10% better than what everyone else is giving you? Personally, if I worked in an office, I'd be happy for them to log all they want. If they'd fire me for hitting OCuk and not because I'm actually under performing, I'd dare say it's their loss for making stupid decisions. If they use the former as an excuse to fire for the latter, then fair enough.

because while they're doing their half arsed job they're opening the company up to risks which could cost a lot of money.

 

[Housey]

They could, you know, judge and pay you based on levels of work output, as opposed to the process you go through achieving this. Really, many jobs will benefit from the ability to use the Internet, and that can be completely misrepresented by looking at the logs alone. Also, who really cares if someone is only giving you 50% of effort if their 50% is 10% better than what everyone else is giving you? Personally, if I worked in an office, I'd be happy for them to log all they want. If they'd fire me for hitting OCuk and not because I'm actually under performing, I'd dare say it's their loss for making stupid decisions. If they use the former as an excuse to fire for the latter, then fair enough.

Fantasy world I'm afraid. In my not insubstantial experience the people who spend lots of down time browsing websites are not the grade A employees, they are lazy sods who need a kick up the arse.

 

[Woden]

+1

There to work, not to web browse. If I done nothing for hours at a time my ass would be out the door. Guess it's a bit more obvious when you actually work for a living instead of sit in front of a PC all day though.

Obvious troll is obvious.

 

[aln]

because while they're doing their half arsed job they're opening the company up to risks which could cost a lot of money.

Realstically, if you're talking about web based security concerns, they can be doing that anyway with legitimate use but its much more likely to come from someone being stupid than someone checking youtube or facebook throughout the day.

P.S. My entire point was that its silly to judge someones quality or quantity of work based on their browsing history, its funny you jumped straight to people doing a half arsed job.

Fantasy world I'm afraid. In my not insubstantial experience the people who spend lots of down time browsing websites are not the grade A employees, they are lazy sods who need a kick up the arse.

Well do you check everyones web history on a regular basis, or just those underperforming? Honestly, I don't know a single person who works their ass off as much as they claim, but I know there are a lot of people who'll happily sit at their desk all day and achieve nothing flying under the radar of the bums on seat managment because, well, they're not browsing.

 

[Housey]

P.S. My entire point was that its silly to judge someones quality or quantity of work based on their browsing history, its funny you jumped straight to people doing a half arsed job.

You don't judge, you form an opinion and review other aspects....to find most of the time (though of course not all) they are in fact an utterly lazy b stard.

 

[MisChief]

Hmm I sometimes wonder if my workplace track my internet history/activities... But I highly doubt it. My job involves surfing online shopping sites, facebook and youtube so it would be kinda silly for them to track those

 

[Housey]

Well do you check everyones web history on a regular basis, or just those underperforming? Honestly, I don't know a single person who works their ass off as much as they claim, but I know there are a lot of people who'll happily sit at their desk all day and achieve nothing flying under the radar of the bums on seat managment because, well, they're not browsing.

When you have under performing people you do some digging and form an opinion based on many different factors and different companies will take different approaches when it comes to web habits. These may simply be from watching now and again when they walk past a desk to the other extreme of monitoring every aspect of an employees actions from when they enter a building to when they leave it.

It's of course dependent on the role and the nature of business and in the more 'corporate' environments and certainly when you move into high stake environments such as city finance the vast majority of the 'IT Team' have little or in some case zero idea of what is monitored, that sits 'elsewhere'.

 

[Collider]

We get lists of people in our teams who have accessed particular websites for long periods of time, listing them by name and site and time spent on it asking if we want to continue to allow access or cut it off / address it with the individual concerned.

Its up to us to decide if its legitimate access or tell people to stop etc. HR can get involved if we want but I don't feel a need for it. If you sit on a forum at our place, you wouldn't be very popular. We aren't paying for browsing, at the end of the day. I don't get reports if people have popped on news sites, read a bit of twitter and updated their FB page or go on a site every lunch time or after hours if they are doing something and I've fed back its legitimate in a lot of cases where people are researching competitors etc.

I get reports if people repeatedly visit sites with no work connection and in my view rightly so. I deal with it with the individual and that's that. If they have that much free time they really need some more work.

 

[aln]

When you have under performing people you do some digging and form an opinion based on many different factors and different companies will take different approaches when it comes to web habits. These may simply be from watching now and again when they walk past a desk to the other extreme of monitoring every aspect of an employees actions from when they enter a building to when they leave it.

It's of course dependent on the role and the nature of business and in the more 'corporate' environments and certainly when you move into high stake environments such as city finance the vast majority of the 'IT Team' have little or in some case zero idea of what is monitored, that sits 'elsewhere'.

Don't get me wrong, I figure if the IT deparment (or the security team, or data retentions, or w/e) gets asked for such a report on the basis that a) said manager thinks the employee is useless or lazy, or b) said manager does not like the employee, I figure in the majority of cases there will be enough to condemn the person, given that the same manager is probably involved in those employees reviews.

My point was more based on those on a suspicion that a good amount of favoured employees would have a similar history, questioning whether or not the data itself is really relevant, or if its just a useful tool to utilise in the event you wish to trim some fat in face of generally ever increasing employment rights.

Not unsuprisngly, I program for a living. You take the Internet from me, my productivity and or value would likely go down, but if you give it to me, you could likely hang me from it if you really wanted too. For me, I'd dare say it largely dependant on your motivation to look or not. I'd figure if you're already looking, it's only a matter of time for most folks. I'd happily jump before I was pushed, because honestly, even if I felt I was working hard, I don't think its a battle worth fighting.

 

[Mr^B]

+1

There to work, not to web browse. If I done nothing for hours at a time my ass would be out the door. Guess it's a bit more obvious when you actually work for a living instead of sit in front of a PC all day though.

Must be galling knowing that people earn more than you by just sitting in front of a PC all day...rather than doing *actual* work, huh?

 

[Pawnless Endgame]

Yep.

I personally like how large company = 200 though...

Doubt they'll keylog, as others have said, They'll just log everything that's passed through their router address wise...

kd

I worked for a Christian company, only 20 people or so. The network admin installed a keylogger on my PC behind my back because he was suspecting that I was up to something. It back-fired and he ended up getting the chop and the IT manager resigned. That was the end of a bad era and the start of a good new era, getting rid of those 2 guys.

 

[Infidelus]

Is this possible?

I work in a rather large company of around 200 employees, I am desk based so the majority of the day I find myself browsing this forum and facebook etc.

I am sure to delete my history every evening, but could it possibly be saved on a server somewhere whereby they can access and check it at any time regardless?

If you use a computer at work, you shouldn't have any expectation of privacy when using it. It's owned by the business, and they are, as already mentioned, legally allowed to track what you do on there, whether it be browsing the net, sending emails or whatever else you do on there.

A lot of companies also use traffic monitoring software. Not only to see where you're going, but to restrict you from visiting sites that you have no business using during work hours unless your business has an online presence there (Social Network sites, Ebay etc).

If you don't want your employer to know what sites you're visiting, don't use their IT to do it.

 

[Lysander]

the scum expecting you to work while they're paying you eh?

That's not the point I was making. Having freedom to surf can increase your productivity and emotional well-being at work. You end up arriving earlier, staying later, and doing everything you need to in the meantime.

In one of the companies I worked for there was unlimited Internet access and productivity was high and the office feeling was positive.

Conversely, I stayed in that part of Harrods for two weeks because it was suffocating and they treated us all like cattle. Staff quit often, and they just farmed them through.