Office snooping software attacked by privacy groups – Times Online: “From Times Online
April 25, 2008
Office snooping software attacked by privacy groups
E-mail reading programs can monitor message content and even analyse the relationship between sender and receiver
Jonathan Richards

Companies are coming under fire from privacy campaigners for rolling out a computer program which enables them to track the communications and contacts of their staff.

Technology is beginning to allow big City firms to monitor the e-mail correspondence of their workers to establish whom they know and how well they know them.

The alleged benefit is that the company can tap the collective knowledge of their organisation – in particularly the connections its employees have with other firms – to drum up new business and assist with tasks like recruitment.

But privacy activists say the programs amount to illegitimate ‘snooping’, and lawyers have questioned whether they are legal, saying that even if staff do agree to a monitoring policy as part of their contract, the amount of ‘silent observation’ might be unreasonable.”