So in part one of this mini-epic I responded to a comment author on another blog. In it, I addressed the, as I see it, flawed thinking in their approach to the use of filtering software or appliances.
In this second post I want to put forward some of the benefits, again as I see it, of why we should spy.
So, without further ado:
Regulatory Issues.
I mentioned in the last post that I won’t enter into a ‘legal or not‘ debate here (happy to discuss the morality and ethics though) as they vary widely from country to country – but in my experience and in my reading up on the matter it would appear that courts generally rule in favor of the employer in a vast majority of cases regarding workplace privacy.
What does this tell me? That the law makers and the governments believe it is right to filter / monitor. It follows then, that as we are meant to be guided by the bible that we should adhere to the ruling practices of our country.
Meet Legal Obligations.
In a similar vein to above, does your country require data to be kept? Do you need to be able to retrieve emails from 2 years ago if so ordered by a court? What about your telephone logs if using VOIP? By filtering / monitoring / logging, and here we are looking at more than just internet usage, you can ensure you meet your country’s requirements.
Investigate claims of abuse
This also could have legal ramifications – but equally could just be a matter of morality especially within a church setup. However, the problem of employees using the internet inappropriately puts you in the same boat as every other company. Put it another way – you’d be foolish to believe your workplace is exempt.
It is becoming an increasing problem – employees abusing their internet privileges by chatting with friends, trading (stocks, ebay, etc), shopping, watching TV or films, and much more. In short it’s a loss of productivity that you, the employer, are paying for. In the case of a church it is ultimately the members that pay.
Increase productivity.
Conversely, by monitoring / controlling your employees access you should increase their productivity. Which simply means (in business terms) increased profits. In church terms in means better stewardship of your resources or doing more for less. It is estimated that approx 75m of every day is used for non-business related activity for each member of staff. Based on a figure of (I believe) £14ph average pay in the UK then that equates to an annual loss of £3,640 per employee! I don’t know about your church but that’s a huge figure here.
Stop confidential material from’walking’.
This comes back to the trust issue.
Sure, we can get staff Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) checked, but even that is not 100% foolproof. But what if you decide you don’t need that – as it has a set cost per employee in the UK to undergo – what guarantees do you have of any security or peace of mind? What about the data you no doubt keep on the church members and visitors? Are you registered with the Data Protection Register? If not, in the UK, it’s a criminal offence and who suffers – the guy at the top which in this case is the pastor.
The greatest assets in any company is the data contained within it – that applies equally to any church. You need to ensure it is protected and you need to do your best to ensure it doesn’t get leaked to third-parties. Part of this comes from correct access rights within your network but equally controlling what gets out of your network.
So, what else in a nutshell could we say?
How about some bullet points of reasons to monitor?
- A computer and its internet connections is church property.
- Increase your employee productivity.
- Staff not doing their job lowers morale.
- Stop confidential matters from leaving the church unintentionally.
- Protect the church from lawsuits for sexual harassment, defamation, illegal activity, etc.
- Ease maintenance and management of systems.
- Reduce troubleshooting within your network and applications.
- Reduce bandwidth usage.
- Allows you to conduct employee investigations.
Now, don’t misunderstand me. Nothing is perfect and nothing is foolproof but by engaging in monitoring you reduce the liability or the accidental chance of someone doing something you never intended.
I also want to make it absolutely clear here that I am 100% against spying. Most products (certainly the ones aimed at non-business use) seem to espouse the idea that covert investigations are ok. On the contrary, they aren’t and never should be. I’m a huge fan of the ‘let’s discuss it approach’ as in let’s talk through the issues and the benefits / downsides and then if I opt to implement filtering / monitoring you are fully aware that this is the case and can have no grounds for complaint.
My proposed part three may take some more time to create as I investigate current offerings.
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