Employer tracking employee computers

Jambonjunior · 21-12-2023 10:15am #1

Is it legal in Ireland for employers to track computer usage?

Is there any way to know if it's done?

And by tracking I mean, more about work activity etc rather then website. Do they measure people being active and online etc, what work apps etc

Creamy Goodness · 21-12-2023 10:24am

Not sure of the legalities of it (not a lawyer), I'd strongly suggest looking at your employment contract. If the computer was supplied by the employer the computer is property of your employer so I'd safely assume all things are tracked or likely to be tracked.

Work supplied computers/phone should only be used for work imho.

Kimbot · 21-12-2023 10:27am

I would imagine its legal as its their property and you should have a usage policy telling you what is allowed etc by your employer.

mondeoman72 · 21-12-2023 10:31am

I work for a big mulitnational. Our laptops and desktops log in via a VPN which send us through company servers. We are monitored and it is mentioned in the splash screen about unholding company policies. If we use wifi on our company mobiles on site, we get blocked if we search for forbidden phrases i.e drugs, sex, whatever. If we switch off Wifi our phones go to Vodafone and are unblocked.

See does any of this apply to you.

Eldudeson · 21-12-2023 10:42am

In my place, I know that all websites visited are recorded but not monitored. And by websites, I mean the IP address and not the site itself is recorded. If the company want to monitor, then they would have to convert the IP addresses to sites.

Also, as above, there are forbidden sites through our IT provider. I can't even get on to Tesco as they sell alcohol!

The Continental Op · 21-12-2023 10:47am

I used to work for a company that wrote monitoring software and another that sold another monitoring product it was sold to companies in Ireland so that makes me think its perfectly legal.

One thing a lot of monitoring software does is produce lists of particular web habits for example in a huge multinational you would be able to see who were your biggest users and downloaders. Most admins would produce a report that included top ten users, the users that made the most number of "banned" searches etc. Anyone using the companies internet for work would probably stay off the "radar".

Augme · 21-12-2023 10:57am

It's potentially a bit of a grey area. Technically they can track you but whether they can legally use it to discipline is another issue. It also depends on what you mean by tracking as well.

Gooser14 · 21-12-2023 11:02am

See the following link:

https://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employment/employment-rights-and-conditions/data-protection-at-work/surveillance-in-the-workplace/#17086a

Flinty997 · 24-12-2023 11:47am

My understanding is they have to tell you they are doing it.

You'd be crazy to use a work computer, phone, tablet or any device for anything other than work.

Many places to track if you are "Active" hence the rise of mouse jigglers. In my opinion if a company is spending more effort to track that, instead of output and productivity. It's time to leave.

Ash.J.Williams · 24-12-2023 11:54am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121521355#Comment_121521355

There's no grey area

Shank Williams · 24-12-2023 11:56am

Don’t use company laptop for anything other than work - how hard is that to adhere to??

Akrasia · 24-12-2023 12:04pm

I manage the endpoints in my job and set the conditional access policies.

Most business activity is logged by default, so if I needed to, I could read any email sent via the company email domains or download any file stored on any of the cloud storage sites.

It's not something I have any remote interest in doing. But if we have a dispute and someone in the company demands a copy of all of their data, I need to be able to access it

Similarly, if there's a threat detected we need to be able to trace online activity, so all logins and any software that tries to connect to any company resource is logged.

For security we operate a list of blocked websites and use Azure to block categories of online content because that needs to be managed programmatically. I have zero interest in checking anyone's online activity, but if their device triggers an alert, I will see where that alert came from and that is often a URL.

So if you like looking at 'classic tractors' on your work machine you're exposing your device to risk, and if you get around the whitelist and if that generates an alert, it will show on your IT admins dashboard.

Regarding work activities, Azure will log and monitor metrics lke how many teams calls you have, how many emails you respond to etc. We don't actively monitor these in our company but it would be very easy to build dashboards to track how 'productive' your staff are, and with AI, that's getting even easier.

"hey AI, tell me which staff on my team send the fewest emails between 4pm and 5:30 on a Friday afternoon"

That kind of analytics will be available to every nosey manager very soon if not already enabled for them

Flinty997 · 24-12-2023 1:45pm

Admins have access to everything. A lot of systems now bundle staff monitoring in their feature set. It's all there at the click of button. Your being pushed at it all the time.

The problem with this is it's very easy to fall into the mindset that activity is productivity. Once you get down that road you get people chasing those stats instead of productive work.

Simple example is someone doing lots of light tasks vs someone stuck in complex task or project.

Buddy Bubs · 24-12-2023 6:53pm

2 of my college friends were sacked for inappropriate use of company email back around the year 2006/7. We were only out of college, it was before we had smartphones and WhatsApp groups and that's how we sent on funny videos etc.

He appealed and got legal representation but still lost.

I'm general manager of my company and I do a bit of work with our IT consultant.

There's a log of every time you turn it on, open a program, press a key, send an email, open a file. How they use that is up to them. I've seen these logs, not that I fully understand them. I can see every mobile phone call and text made on company phones, I can see every time a landline extension is used and for how long and to whom. I can see whether our vans are moving, what speed they are doing, whether they are braking hard or driving erratically and where they are. I don't use any of it for spying though. I use it for legitimate reasons. Like seeing which van is closest to an urgent repair call we got in. In one instance we had a staff member being an absolute pest to her manager and we got the duration of phone calls between them, which did turn out to be ridiculously excessive.

What's probably not happening is someone sitting there watching what you're doing or anyone else is doing, but if there's a reason for them to be watching you they could very easily do it. And no you wouldn't know.

Jim2007 · 24-12-2023 11:44pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121532586#Comment_121532586

The reality is that everything you do is tracked by someone on the network, either intentionally or otherwise. And yes in the end if pushed it will come down to a judicial decision as to whether it can be used in a court of law or not. And you'd be very foolish to assume otherwise.

I remember one case where two people were having an affair and it became known to most operators and management simply because the reply chain and attachments became so big that it was dumping stack traces of the emails and blocking the system so of course an investigation followed. I don't know if the couple were ever told about this.

Ash.J.Williams · 25-12-2023 12:21am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121534296#Comment_121534296

You wouldn't be fired for poor productivity as a result of information gleaned from productivity monitoring software, however it could kick off a process where you'll get bad reviews and official warnings etc leading to dismissal

chrisd2019 · 25-12-2023 12:37am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058327861/employer-tracking-employee-computers

Everything done on a computer be it a personal or work one is traceable and recordable, your internet provider for example records traffic. Therefore do not use the work equipment for anything that might breach policies. This could be extrapolated into how much action a user does each day hour week ect.

Depending on role of course a PC may not be required for all activities.

Legality is possibly covered by one of the policies you read and signed at induction.

Padre_Pio · 25-12-2023 1:17am

I got a call one day after I downloaded something from my company's portal and 5 mins later opened an edit page on Wikipedia.

They definitely have automated software that flags suspicious activity.

Flinty997 · 25-12-2023 1:37pm

So the answer op is yes.

Ash.J.Williams · 25-12-2023 4:08pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121534296#Comment_121534296

You'll have to explain that one

Flinty997 · 25-12-2023 5:40pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121535417#Comment_121535417

I assume their activity caused a spike that drew attention to it, then got investigated as to the cause of the spike.

That's what normally happens.

Ash.J.Williams · 25-12-2023 6:41pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121535545#Comment_121535545

That doesn't sound correct at all

Jim2007 · 25-12-2023 6:55pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121535417#Comment_121535417

This was 25 years ago, when mail systems were not so robust, but exactly what I said, their entire mail thread be came so great that it caused stack overflows and the programmers default in such a situation was to dump the contents of the thread and reset the email system. Needless to say, when a corporate mail system goes down and people loose important mail, senior management ask a lot of questions and demand answers.

Another example is where a company receives a discovery order from the courts to turn over certain disks or backups or similar media. The entire thing must be handed over and will be gone through the requesting body. The company is not allowed to edit the media and that means stuff may get handed over and reviewed that could embarrass you.

Assume that everything you do on the internet or a corporate network has the potential to end up on a public notice board and act accordingly and you won't go too far wrong.

Mrs OBumble · 25-12-2023 7:17pm

There was reasonable personal use allowed, and policies developed to match, 20 years ago when many people had computers at work.

But now that everyone who uses email also has a smartphone, and the majority of websites are mobile-first, there's really no excuse for any personal use.