How to Protect Yourself from Workplace Monitoring

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Surveys suggest that 3 out of 4 companies monitor employees' online activity. Protect yourself from workplace prying by following a few simple rules.

Steps

1. Cover your clacks. If you suspect the man is logging your every keystroke, install Spyware Doctor 3.8. It'll expose Any program running silently in the background while you work. (Note: you may need an admin password to install the app. If your IT department refuses to help, try bribing them with a spool of blank DVDs.)
   
2. Surf undercover. Prevent your boss from tracking your daily URL crawl with a Web-based program like The Cloak, which masks the addresses of sites you visit by redirecting your browsing through its domain.
   
3. Change up your email. Don't use your work email for anything other than, well, work. If you want to send private messages over your employer's servers, set up an encrypted email account with a provider like Hushmail.
   
4. IM on the DL. With an admin password, you can download an encrypted service like PSST or a program like Encrypted Messenger, which encodes most IM clients. The quick and dirty way: open an AOL IM account and use the Web-based chat service. With all the Web activity at work, the chance that anyone will notice your texting is small.
   
5. Get peace of mind. Still spooked? Check out the Electronic Privacy Information Center's guide to cloaking tools.
   

Warnings

• Always use Extreme caution when trying anything of these things. If you are caught, you will most likely find out what it is like to have unlimited free time on your hand.
  

Related wikiHows

• How to Remove Spyware
  
• How to Install and Use Ad Aware for Spyware Removal
  
• How to Look Busy at Work Without Really Working
  

Sources and Citations

• Wired Magazine - Original source of this article. Shared with permission.
  

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