Almost one in four Irish people who use the Internet at work have their Web browsing monitored and nearly half are not permitted to send personal e-mails, new research has found.
According to findings published in Amárach’s latest quarterly Consumer TrendWatch survey, some 336,000 Irish adults use the Internet at work, which equates to a third of all Internet users in the country.
As part of the research, those who believed their work access was monitored were then asked further questions about the nature of the restrictions applied to them. Almost three quarters of those respondents said that the time spent visiting Web sites was checked and 61 per cent said that actual sites they visited were also monitored.
In addition, 44 per cent of those whose access is restricted said that they were never allowed to browse the Internet or visit sites for personal use.
The most common policy used by companies is to monitor the amount of time spent online or Websites visited.
More than one in five of those questioned said they were unsure if the Websites they visit are monitored. ‘It is interesting to note the high number of respondents who responded do not know. Many employers are not being up-front about the level of monitoring and do not have formal and transparent policies in place,’ commented Bettina MacCarvill, senior consultant at Amárach.
She added that this situation probably suits many employers. ‘Employees are less likely to waste time online if they suspect it is being monitored.’
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