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Employers monitor 'cyberslackers' using Internet for fun at work.

Article Excerpt
Byline: Robert Rodriguez

Oct. 31--If you are playing fantasy football, bidding on eBay or instant messaging friends from work, you may want to think twice.

An increasing number of companies are installing software to clamp down on "cyberslacking" -- a practice that experts say can result in lost productivity, clogged networks and the pirating of privileged company information.

Now companies can track what Internet sites an employee visited and how long they stayed. E-mails and instant messaging also can be recorded to the last keystroke.

"It all sounds a little Orwellian and it may seem like Big Brother is watching you," says Daniel Duffy, president of Valley Network Solutions in Fresno, a provider of Web-filtering software. "But at the end of the day, a computer is no different than any other piece of office equipment like a desk or a pencil. It's not the employee's property and it is up to the manager to decide how it will be used."

Employee advocates say the push for network security can become too heavy-handed with employers reading employee's e-mail or inspecting every Web site they visited.

"It has the potential to open a window into a person's private life and we think that's wrong," says Lewis Maltby, executive director of the National Workrights Institute in Princeton, N.J.

Employers say it's not an issue of privacy but of productivity and ensuring...