Employers often use pen registers to monitor employees with jobs in which telephones are used extensively. Frequently, employees are concerned that the information gathered from the pen register is unfairly used to evaluate their efficiency with clients without consideration of the quality of service. If you have a computer terminal at your job, it may be your employer's window into your workspace. There are several types of computer monitoring. Employers can use computer software that enables them to see what is on the screen or stored in the employees' computer terminals and hard disks.
Employers can monitor Internet usage such as web-surfing and electronic mail.
People involved in intensive word-processing and data entry jobs may be subject to keystroke monitoring. Such systems tells the manager how many keystrokes per hour each employee is performing. It also may inform employees if they are above or below the standard number of keystrokes expected. Keystroke monitoring has been linked with health problems including stress disabilities and physical problems like carpal tunnel syndrome. Another computer monitoring technique allows employers to keep track of the amount of time an employee spends away from the computer or idle time at the terminal.