Best Practices for Tracking Browsing Activities Without Compromising Trust

Monitoring computer activity has become a norm in the modern workplace. According to surveys, 43% of companies monitor their employees' online activity. The prevalence of this practice is unsurprising because the Internet remains one of the main sources of distractions and security dangers for company data. However, employees are often displeased with monitoring because they see it as distrust and violating their privacy. Unethical tracking of browsing activities may lead to decreased employee morale and trust. In this article, we will explore the monitoring of employee online activity, its benefits, challenges, and legality, and how to implement it ethically.
What is tracking browsing activity?
Tracking browsing activities in the workplace usually includes recording visited websites, search queries, activity on social media, and chats (occasionally including messaging logs). Sometimes, the employer may also track file transfers and keystrokes (for example, messages or search queries).
Organizations may use one of several methods for internet activity monitoring:
- Network monitoring through router configuration: setting up the router to record Internet traffic;
- Proxy servers and firewalls can log Internet traffic for administrative review. They can also block access to inappropriate websites;
- Employee monitoring software logs all employee computer activity, including browsing history and social media activity, and has site-blocking functionality.
Is tracking browsing activities legal in the workplace?
The legality of tracking Internet activity depends on state and local laws in your area. For example, under U.S. law, employee monitoring is usually legal. The Electronic Communication Privacy Act (ECPA) generally allows employers to monitor company-owned devices and networks if they pursue legitimate business purposes. Some states urge organizations to notify employees about tracking activities; other states leave notification to the employer's discretion. Employers are also advised to have a clear policy outlining the scope and practices of monitoring.
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) governs tracking of employee computer activity in the EU. Under it, organizations must limit data collection to strictly necessary for legitimate business purposes, inform the staff about monitoring, and often acquire their consent.
Similar data protection regulations apply in Australia, India, Canada, Denmark, and other countries.
Other jurisdictions have stricter privacy protections. In Greece, for example, electronic surveillance is prohibited unless the employer has legal authorization or legitimate business purposes. The Netherlands requires organizations to have legitimate business interests that outweigh employee privacy rights to implement employee monitoring. Finland limits the monitoring of emails, calls, and computer usage.
In this section, we only briefly overviewed the legality of employee monitoring under various jurisdictions. Overall, while employee monitoring is generally legal in most countries, there's an increasing emphasis on balancing employer interests with employee privacy rights. We recommend consulting your legal advisor before implementing tracking practices in your organization.
How can monitoring browsing activity benefit your business?
Tracking browsing activities can benefit both organizations and employees and here is how:
- Monitoring improves productivity. Fighting the temptation to check incoming chat messages or a shopping website can be challenging, and not all can resist it. Tracking browsing activities reveals employees who spend excessive time on non-work-related activities, such as personal browsing, social media, video platforms, and others. With this information, managers can take measures to improve focus and productivity, for example, by blocking distractions.
- Collected data reveals skill gaps. If an employee frequently googles how to use a certain app required for work, they may need additional training. Analyzing an employee's browsing history may give you a clue about what skills and knowledge they lack. After that, you can plan training and development programs accordingly.
- Tracking increases data security. A strong DLP solution can detect and prevent unauthorized employee access, sharing, or downloading of sensitive company data.
- Monitoring helps increase company network security. Specialized software can identify attempts to access malicious websites or download infected files.

Challenges of monitoring Internet activity
Despite all its benefits, tracking employee browsing activities may backfire if implemented unethically. The main concern here is worker privacy. Employees have a right to privacy, and using too intrusive monitoring methods may lead to distrust, a hostile work environment, and even legal repercussions. Employees may feel micromanaged and untrusted, which may decrease their job satisfaction and make them look for better conditions in other companies.
Tracking Internet activity is associated with technical challenges as well. Implementing and maintaining monitoring systems can be complex and expensive. Besides, even the most reliable solutions are prone to errors. They may flag legitimate activities as suspicious, leading to unnecessary scrutiny of employees.
Implementing employee monitoring requires a careful approach to mitigate these difficulties and reap all the advantages.
Tracking browsing activities without compromising trust
We have collected the best practices for implementing tracking software.
Choose reliable softwareToday's market offers plenty of employee monitoring tools for tracking browsing activities. CleverControl is one of the most advanced and reliable solutions in the sphere. It tracks each employee's browsing history, search queries, time spent on each website, and social media activity. The collected data is aggregated in clear statistical charts and graphs, allowing a quick analysis of individual productivity and team-wide trends. The platform also offers flexible site-blocking settings, so you can limit distractions and help employees focus on work.
Adhere to transparency principlesA manager will hardly earn their team's trust by secretly monitoring their activity. Honesty is always the best policy. We recommend openly communicating the reasons for implementing tracking measures to the employees, even if your jurisdiction does not require it. Be transparent about what data is collected: visited websites, time spent on these websites, screenshots, social media logs, etc. Whenever possible, seek employee consent for monitoring, especially for more intrusive methods.
Focus on aggregated data when possibleIf it is acceptable for your monitoring purposes, remove personally identifiable information from the activity analysis to protect employee privacy. Try to focus on analyzing trends rather than individual activity. Do not track a specific employee's browsing history; instead, look for patterns like excessive time on social media or visits to risky websites.
Limit the monitoring scopeDefine clear monitoring goals and the scope of data you need to collect to achieve them. For example, if the goal is to reveal distractions, it will be enough to capture visited websites and time spent on them. Recording incoming and outgoing messages on social media is excessive in this case.
Browsing activities should be tracked on company-owned devices and during work hours only. Avoid monitoring employee activity outside of work hours or on personal devices. The only exception may be when an employee uses a personal device for work. In this case, the chosen monitoring solution should have clock-in and clock-out functionality so the employee can stop monitoring when the workday ends.
Create and share clear guidelinesThe organization should have a comprehensive Internet use policy that defines acceptable and unacceptable online behavior. Besides, there should be a separate policy outlining the scope of monitoring, how the collected data is used, for how long it is retained, and who can access it. Both policies should be easily accessible to employees. The team must understand the policies and their implications and have a channel to express their concerns.
Regularly review and adjustMonitoring practices should not be set in stone. They should be periodically reviewed to ensure they are still necessary and effective.
Actively listen to employee feedback and adjust the tracking to any privacy concerns. Besides, you should stay updated with relevant privacy and labor laws and ensure compliance with changes.
Final Thoughts
Tracking the browsing activities of employees can significantly improve employee productivity and focus and strengthen the company's security. However, monitoring practices require a careful approach that will allow you to avoid their negative sides. By prioritizing transparency, focusing on aggregated data, and respecting employee privacy, you can implement browsing activity monitoring in a way that maintains trust and fosters a positive work environment.