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Employee web activity can be easily tracked by keeping a record of browsing history, router logs, and insights on Windows Data Usage. Even though browsing history can be deleted, employers can view the deleted browsing logs with the help of router logs. If you need to monitor application usage of employees, then Task Manager insights and Windows Data Usage settings can help you monitor data usage of each application for a specific period of time.
Majority of organizations are now monitoring internet activity of their WFH and hybrid employees to detect any security threats or unauthorized access, comply with regulatory demands, and improve productivity. But this isn’t as easy as just setting up a monitoring software on user’s systems. Employers often struggle with the legal aspect of employee monitoring and with maintaining transparency with employees.
As per a popular research, only 22% of employees know in advance that their systems are being monitored. This highlights a huge gap in the industry that affects employee’s trust and retention within the company. Several studies also suggest that being transparent about monitoring internet activity reduces the chance of employee retaliation and improves productivity and employee retention drastically. In this blog, we’ll go over the basic topics on how you can track user internet activity without hurting their trust and in a compliant manner.
Which types of internet activities are trackable?
It’s necessary to know which types of internet activities can be tracked to avoid any privacy breach and compliance violations. Read ahead to know different types of internet activities that you can track:
- IP address: Certain organizations monitor IP addresses of their employees to protect organizational data and prevent unauthorized access.
- Browser history: Some companies track browser history of their employees to see which websites they’re visiting to understand employee search statistics.
- File sharing: Sharing or transferring files carelessly can expose them to malicious outlets and thereby increase the chances of malware attacks.
- Keyboard monitoring: Some employers monitor which keys are being pressed on a user’s keyboard for monitoring internet activity and unusual activity. This also helps in troubleshooting certain security issues. Although, monitoring this activity is controversial as it can also track sensitive information of users.
- Sent or received messages: Many organizations monitor the sent and received emails of their employees. This is done to make sure that users aren’t sharing any sensitive information or to look for suspicious emails received.
Is it actually legal to monitor web browsing activity of employees?
Yes, it’s absolutely legal for employers to track user activity when using company-owned devices or networks. When employers have a valid reason for monitoring internet activity and the employees are informed beforehand, then monitoring is fine as long as it stays within the compliance laws. In some cases, it’s also important to monitor employee activity to prevent misuse of your business data.
Here are some actions when it can get problematic to track user internet activity:
- Monitoring employees in secret, without informing them in advance.
- Recording all actions done by employees, tracking even their sensitive information.
- Monitoring users’ personal devices even after office hours.
- Data being retained for extended periods of time or being shared with unauthorized third-parties.
Top ways to track user internet activity
As we are now clear with the basics of internet activity, browser working, etc., we will help you with the easiest methods to track the internet activity.
#1. Checking internet history via chrome
Deleting web history is a straightforward task. However, if you wish to review your employee’s recently visited sites and internet history in Chrome, you can easily do so by following these steps.
- Open Google Chrome and click on the three dots on the upper-right side of the desktop screen.
- Go to the History tab and you will get to see a detailed list of all the visited sites. Track the Chrome internet activity from here.
#2. Check browsing history & Cache
- Open Internet Explorer. Hold Ctrl + H on your keyboard. From the History tab, you can choose to view your internet activity date-wise. For example: Click on 2 Weeks Ago and you can track the internet activity of the past two weeks.
- For the cookies and temporary internet files option, click on the Settings symbol on the upper-right side of your screen.
- Click on Internet Options.
- Under the General tab, tap on Settings.
- A Website Data Settings window will come up. Under the Temporary Files section, you can check for copies of web pages, images, media, and more.
- Tap on View Files and you can get all the info, in the given location.
- To make modifications to history and website, cache, you can use the other two tabs, History and Cache and databases.
#3. Check router logs
- Type 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1 in the address bar of your browser to access your router. Log in with your administrator username & password.
- Look for the Logs section on the administration page.
- In case the feature is not activated, click Enable. Each computer connected to the network will have its IP address recorded in the router.
- On the next page, click Logs to access the logs. All of the IP addresses accessed by network users are found in the router’s list.
#4. Using task manager
- Hold Alt+Ctrl+Del on your keyword to access Task Manager.
- On Task Manager, tap on the tab App History.
- In this tab, you can see the details of monitoring the data usage on your apps in your system.
Note: You can also click on Delete usage history for resetting the data usage counter, but keep in mind that the counter will reset automatically every 30 days.
#5. Using settings
- From the Search option on your Desktop, type Settings.
- Under the Settings Dashboard, scroll down and select the option Network & internet.
- Next, tap on Data Usage. Under the Data Usage tab, you can see how much data you have used over the past 30 days over Wi-Fi and Ethernet.
- For a detailed view of network data usage across all applications on your computer, tap on the Usage details link.
Note: You can also set a data limit for all your apps by using the Enter limit option under the Data Usage tab.
What are the challenges related to monitoring internet activity of employees?
The core difficulty that employers face when they monitor web browsing activity is how to maintain the balance between tracking what’s necessary and privacy breach. Here we’ve given some challenges employers face when tracking user activity:
Avoiding privacy breach: Excessively monitoring employees can feel intrusive and lower the moral of the user. This can thereby reduce trust and productivity of an employee.
Balancing insights and micromanagement: There’s a fine line between gaining professional insights by monitoring employees and micromanaging them. If employees use work laptop for personal search, then it can get tricky to monitor web browsing activity without breaching their privacy and micromanaging them.
When does manual tracking fall short?
Tracking insights like browsing history, router logs, and Windows data settings help when you’re monitoring internet activity of a single employee. But individually checking all these things for a group of individuals gets difficult to manage. For large organizations, employers usually prefer to use a centralized Employee Monitoring software to easily view and manage insights of a big team of employees. Kernel Employee Desktop Viewer works discreetly to monitor web browsing activity of multiple user systems from a centralized interface. This tool efficiently monitors even systems located in different regions and allows admins to download video records of the recorded activities.
Closing notes
Our blog presents reliable techniques for monitoring internet and browser activities on your system. Additionally, we have introduced the user-friendly employee monitoring tool. We trust that these methods will effectively enable you to track all your internet activities. In our opinion, it’s prudent to set aside manual methods and embrace the convenience of the tool. You can download it, use it for free, and make an informed decision based on your experience.
