TACC403: Employee Data Monitoring and Ethical Concerns Report

This report explores the ethical and economic considerations of employee data monitoring within IT-enabled organizations. It examines the extent to which management should monitor employee emails, websites visited, and performance using software. The discussion covers employee activity monitoring, including email and internet usage, and employee performance monitoring. The report also delves into the use of software for tracking and the ethical implications of such practices. It investigates the importance of data privacy, the balance between monitoring and employee trust, and the potential impact on productivity. The report concludes with recommendations on how organizations can balance the need for data security and employee privacy, including the implementation of email tracing software and the need for transparency in monitoring practices. It provides insights into company strategies for managing employee data responsibly and ethically, aiming to protect both organizational interests and employee rights.

Running head: REPORT ON MANAGING ACCOUNT INFORMATION
REPORT
ON
MANAGING ACCOUNT INFORMATION
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note:

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Table of Contents
Executive Summary:........................................................................................................................2
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................3
Discussion:.......................................................................................................................................4
Employee activity monitoring:....................................................................................................4
Employee performance monitoring:............................................................................................5
Use of software:...........................................................................................................................7
Company Strategy:......................................................................................................................8
Conclusion:....................................................................................................................................10
Recommendation:..........................................................................................................................11
Reference:......................................................................................................................................13

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Executive Summary:
Managing the account information of the employees is important for the growth of the
company. In an organization if the employees are utilizing the internet services provided for
irrelevant stuffs, it can hamper the growth of the company affecting its revenues as well. Another
aspect is the ethical issues related to collecting of employee data. With the growing number of
data breaches it can be said that maintaining privacy and confidentiality of information is
required. The paper includes the fact why should employee data be tracked and lastly provides
certain recommendations as to how organizations can help the employees to abide by the IT
regulations.

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Introduction:
The employees or the workforce of an organization are the backbone of the same and its
growth or decline depends on them. The management can only take decisions and it is on the
employees to implement these. The implementation part is of the employees and thus it can be
considered that employees define an organization. The organizations collect a lot of information
about their employees. For example when then hire the employees, their personal details are
taken a note of.
Checking the background of a person and then hiring him for a certain position is
important and necessary. Apart from this, now-a-days the organizations are collecting volumes of
information about the employees that include their e-mail, the websites they are visiting and
many other things along with this. Thus a question arises whether it is ethical to collect these
information. To some extent it can be said that collecting these information can help the
organization to grow as they can ensure that employees are not wasting their time on social
media and sending unnecessary emails during work hours.
There have been many instances where data has been supplied to outside parties for
earning revenue thus it poses a threat to the data of the employees. The e-mail of the employees
and the website they are visiting can reveal a lot about their choices and preferences thus posing
a threat to their privacy. In this paper, the ethical considerations of collection of employee’s data
will be considered. The main topic of discussion is ethical considerations related to the collection
of the data of the employees.

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Discussion:
As mentioned earlier that it is very essential to gather a huge set of information about the
employees of an organization. However, while analyzing this aspect in this scenario collection of
information about their employee as well as the activities of the employee may raise a significant
conflict related to ethical consideration and economical aspect. Hence, in order to elaborate the
nominated area a detail study on the necessity of employee monitoring which includes their
activity and performance monitoring is mentioned below-
Employee activity monitoring:
While analyzing the aspect of gathering employee information within the IT
infrastructure it is identified that most of the organization monitors the emails of the employees.
Followed by this discussion it is identified that it is very essential to ensure security of the
important information within the organization (Chatterjee, Sarker and Siponen 2017).
Considering the workplace scenario it is identified that into the mentioned organization that
monitoring the employees is very essential especially monitoring the emails are also very
important that be impact the privacy concern related to the organization. While highlighting this
area it is observed from the studies that monitoring employee will help the organization to keep
track on their activities. Followed by the monitoring process the organization will be able track
the attendance of their employee, productivity as well as their work effectiveness (Tkach and
Phillips 2019). However, within an organization with IT infrastructure it is very essential to keep
the track of internet uses as these may attract many threats to the organizational services.
Followed by this concern it is identified that email is one of the major assets in any IT
organization. Thus, it is very essential to monitor the emails that has been operated by the
employee within the organization. While discussing about the threats related to the emails it is

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identified that employee present in the IT organization and share the information related to the
organization to any out sider which may raise a huge conflict related to the workplace privacy.
While analyzing this aspect it is identified that delivering and receiving mail not related to the
organization is also one of the biggest conflict that occurs into the organizational infrastructure.
Apart from these aspect it is also identified that in some extent monitoring the employee mail is
not at all ethical as according to the privacy policy of IT companies it is highly unethical to
supervise the employees’ personal mail as it may impact the privacy of the employee (Agarwal et
al., 2017). Thus, it is identified that for any IT organization it will be very effective if there is an
email monitoring system which will only analyze their official mail but not the personal mail of
the employee as into the organizational infrastructure the employee’s personal data protection is
important as well as the organizational data protection.
Followed by the above aspect it is also very essential to monitor the internet use of the
employee in order to keep track of the visited website by the employee within the workplace
infrastructure. While analyzing this are it is identified that monitoring the internet use of the
employee may help the organization to reduce several threats (Tufail et al., 2017). A thorough
investigation on this area has provided me the knowledge this approach is highly capable to
reduce the internal disruption within the organization. However, while analyzing this area with it
is observed that monitoring internet use of the employee unethical as that it may reduce the
significance of employee privacy. But is we need to maintain the workplace security with ethical
activities thus it is required to inform the employee about the monitoring which will help them be
aware of the tracking (Holt, Lang and Sutton 2016).

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Employee performance monitoring:
Followed by the above discussion it is identified that into the infrastructure of the IT
enabled organization it is very easy to track the performance of the employee present in the
organization. While analyzing this aspect it is observed that in order to manage the workplace
tracking the performance of the employee is very essential as this will help the higher authority
to get an idea about how each of the employee is working and in case there is a lack what needs
to be done to mitigate that conflict (Rosengren et al., 2017). Considering this aspect it is
identified that there are several advantages present behind the adoption of employee performance
monitoring system which includes enhancement into the employee work, better tracking detail of
the employee activities as well as to monitor the employee if they violate any policy or not (Patel
and Tiwari2017).
However, the adoption of employee monitoring holds major impact on the betterment of
organizational services but it may sometime cause a huge conflict within the organization. As the
adoption of employee monitoring increases the stress level of the employee due to which the
employee may feel forced that has a major impact on their performances. As it is stated earlier
that the employee monitoring will improve the work effectiveness of the employee thus it will be
threat full for the organization. Making allowance to this concern it is also identified that this
initiative may raise problems related to employee mistrust (Kasliwal, Kotkar and Gadade 2016).
Thus, in the workplace the higher authority should not track the work progress every hour but the
daily tracking will be beneficial for the organization as it will help the employee to meet their
daily target due to which the organization will also get enhancement into their work efficiency.
As it is discussed earlier that the adoption of employee monitoring helps the organization
to keep the track in their performance it is also identified that along with the consideration of the

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daily track report the weekly tracking is also one of the best option to incorporate. As this will
help to enhance the quality of employee work and it will also help to boost the employee (Van et
al., 2017).
Use of software:
Considering the above identification on the IT enabled organization related to their
employee management and business ethics it is identified that the official mail addresses should
be traced by the organization however, they must not trace the personal emails of the employee
within the organization. Along with this the organization also needs to inform the employee
about the tracing process as this will help to be aware of the fact that they should not share any
personal information through official mail address (Audenaert et al., 2019). While discussing this
aspect it is identified that the IT enabled organizations needs to implement software system for
mail tracing. While analyzing the primary intention behind this initiative is to effectively analyze
the email operations thus it will be effective of the IT enabled organization utilizes the
electronically shred software. While investigating the capabilities of these software it is observed
that these are one of the effective solution that traces the insight of the emails (Buchana et al.,
2018). Along with this these software also includes the features of getting notification which
opening any attachment as well as while sending or receiving any mail. Considering these
facilities now a days most of the IT enabled organization has intended to implement the software
within the organization (Douglis et al., 2018).
Followed by the above discussion a detail elaboration on why IT enabled companies’
needs to implement electronically shred software to trace emails is mentioned below:
 One of the most beneficial feature of these software is, it saves a lots of time. As the
email tracing software provides and quick review on when an individual has opened that

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email, when he has received or send an email as well as what attachment has been
downloaded by the user. However, while using the traditional process the tracking will
become very difficult which may cause a huge blunder related to the data privacy of the
individual. Thus, it can be stated that the IT enabled organization must adopt
electronically shred software for email tracing (Kostopoulos 2017).
 Along with the above feature while working with email tracking software it is also very
significant that it has the capabilities to easily identify the targeted prospects as well as
this will also help to quickly classify the information that has been gathered from the
investigation.
 Creation of customized responses are also one of the helpful feature of electronically
shred software as it will help to send automated response to the user if there is any
unusual activity is present. Making allowance to this consideration it has been also
observed that this feature also reduces the human effort and informs the users about their
threat full activities (Jost et al., 2016).
 Apart from these benefits one of the major benefits of adopting the electronically shred
software is to protect the organizational data. Studies has proven that organizations with
electronically shred software for email tracking are most secure and less vulnerable while
considering the privacy of the organizational information (Kamath and Arun 2016). If we
consider the ethical aspect related to this scenario it can be stated that analyzing the
personal information may raise ethical concern but tracing the employee activity by
informing them will reduce the ethical concern and it will also help to enhance the data
protection too.

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Company Strategy:
One of the issues that is existed in visiting online sites is the privacy. There are two
primary issues that are raised. One involves the morality of the user while accessing the websites
via Internet and the second one refers to the management of information within the system to the
producers of the software and software that which allows the record of the posts on the websites
(Martin and Murphy, 2017). The personal data and information such as address, name and email
address as well as the telephone number much not be provided to the 3rd party unless they are
requested specially. Without the authorization of the buyer, the professional and personal
information and data must not be provided, lent or distributed to anyone or even any of the third
party, unless it is compelled by the representative of the law enforcement organisation (Niemiec
and Howard, 2016). The data and information can be utilized for the purposes that is general, as
example for fulfilling the requests that is for the services or for the products, improvement in the
content and design of the website of the company, analyzing the usage of the site, improvement
in the services, conducting research as well as for providing anonymous reporting for the
external and internal clients.
A series of issues have been identified that are related especially to the privacy regarding
information that are existed in the online environment. Between the issues, the most significant
issues are, monitoring and take follow up the activities of Internet users, analyzing and gathering
information, taking the data and information out of the context of them, collect the data of the
users from the international companies or from the governments.
The technology is developing rapidly and led to the new definitions of the protection and
privacy, especially in the online environment. The moral relationships are not able to exist
without trust. Trust one of the most ethical need for the community (Herschel and Miori, 2017).

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When this comes to manage the websites, the issues can arise as a result of the practices which
are insufficient that are often very much hard for implementing most of the times. The websites
are having privacy setting which are the difficult most for comparing with the other sites. It is
indicated by the study that the social networks which are having a lot of users like Linkedin are
having major defaults regarding the issues related to the privacy.
The issues can be solved by several ways. The first one is to educate the users by making
choices which will protect the interests of them. The users have to achieve the personal abilities
of them by limiting the access regarding the information that are available via online
(Drumwright, 2018). The second solution one is to solve the ethical dilemma that can come from
the web browsers. The developers have developed some programs like Collusion that provide
allowance to the users for viewing the activities of the third parties on the internet.
Conclusion:
From the above discussion it is clear that, at the same time when it is important to track
employees e-mail and site visits but these should be done to a certain limit. The tracking of
employee’s emails and website visits should be done but it should be kept in mind that these data
should not be misused by the higher authorities. It can be said that tracking these will help the
management to find out whether employees are wasting time in social media sites or in surfing
irrelevant things on internet instead of focusing on their work. The personal emails of the
employees should not be monitored and there should be strict information from the IT team of
the organizations that using office Internet for surfing irrelevant stuff or chatting on social media
will force the management to take serious steps. The employees can be made aware of the rules
and regulations and they should know that their data is being collected so that their performance
can be evaluated. The performance of the employees can be well monitored by tracking all these

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things but the ethical considerations should be kept in mind. The sites being visited by the
employees can reveal a lot about their choices and preferences which in turn will help the
management in understanding their nature. The tracking of the work of the employees within the
office hours is necessary as this will help the management to find out whether the employees are
working properly or are they wasting time. It can be said that if the employees understand their
duty towards the organization they do not have to face any such circumstances which can have a
bad effect on their career. The organization needs to be clear with its IT rules and regulations so
that the employees cannot blame it on them when they are questioned for wrong doing. It is the
duty of the workforce and the management to work together for the betterment of the
organization. It is against the ethical policies of the IT organizations to keep a track of the
personal email address of the employees. Thus it can be concluded that while tracking the work
of the employees it is necessary for the firms to consider the ethical issues.
Recommendation:
The recommendations are as follows-
1. The employees should be made aware of the fact that their data is being tracked.
2. The personal email cannot be tracked.
3. The IT department can make use of software to block sites that have no use in the working of
the company.
4. The Internet usage can be limited so that they do not have the provision to use it limitlessly for
searching irrelevant stuffs and wasting time.
5. The official mail of the employees should be so developed that they do not get the provision to
send or receive mails from any outsider.