Surveillance-Resources Books

This book has been a great resource for me. As an IT professional
closely working with end users, IT security and monitoring, I have been
reading about user behavior and monitoring practices. However I was
never able to find a book like this one which focuses on the real world
scenarios and provides data from surveys and interviews on these topics.

I really enjoyed the chapters providing information about privacy at
work. Presenting the results of the research in three perspectives
(Managers, IT and employees) providing a detailed picture on how IT
organizations interact with end-users and the relationship with higher
management. I relate to most of the answers provided by IT employees:
higher management most of the times are not so tech-savvy and are the
first ones to circumvent IT security policies, there is a general lack
of education about IT policies in organizations, there is a need for
more formal security awareness programs and training (specially social
engineering).
This book will be helpful to IT Security Managers or any IT employee that works with security policies and its enforcement, user training. Non experienced IT professionals can benefit from this book as it provides real data about the feeling of people at work regarding privacy and monitoring. I have seven years of experience working in IT environments and I can relate to the answers provided by users, managers and IT professionals.
There are many organizations that do not have polices regarding employee privacy. This book will help you understand what issues are important in order to create these so needed policies. This is part of the due care of any organization and users must understand how any private information they generate in the employers infrastructure will be used or subject to monitoring. I used this book as a guideline while working with these privacy and monitoring policies at work.
Do yourself a favor and read this book.

The book consists of several adequate overview chapters, followed by excerpts from interviews with managers, IT people, and ordinary employees. These interview excerpts can be interesting, but anyone working in the field has certainly heard all of these opinions from their own coworkers. The book also contains the results of various surveys of attitudes and practices.

Beware that this is not a practical book, it's a social science monograph, written in a style that will leave you numb if you're not an academic. Worse, the authors occasionally adopt a condescending tone towards those who have only "intuitions" derived from personal experience, and not their own academic pseudo-knowledge.

It was very pleasing to read an IS book that wasn't as dry as sandpaper.

The authors conducted a survey to find out user (general office worker non-tech, executive staff level, and IT people) attitudes about various IS topics. They then wrap around an introduction while the meat of each section is mainly survey excerpts accompanied by expert comments.

I've passed this book along to many of my colleagues to read. Those who have read it also give it rave reviews.

THE VISIBLE EMPLOYEE: USING WORKPLACE MONITORING AND SURVEILLANCE TO PROTECT INFORMATION ASSETS WITHOUT COMPROMISING EMPLOYEE PRIVACY OR TRUST is a 'must' for any business serious about privacy and information security in the workplace. It reports on the results of a four-year research project focused on prevailing workplace security measures and their repercussions, discussing solutions, employee attitudes towards monitoring, and privacy issues. Both legal and security issues come into play in a survey essential for IT managers.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

"The Visible Employee" presents the results of a four-year research project concerning prevailing workplace security measures and their side effects. On the one hand, deliberate or accidental employee misuse of information systems can cause havoc; on the other, too much monitoring and surveillance of employees can provoke conflict on all levels of hierarchy and cause drag on the efficiency of a business. Chapters present the perspectives of Information Technology professionals, managerial perspectives, employee perspectives, the pros and cons of different approaches to the quandary of balancing security against efficiency, and much more. Numerous appendices from employee interview protocol to a recommended password policy ("never use a dictionary word for a password" or "never send a password using email") and an index round out this valuable guide to businesses trying to successfully compete in a rapidly evolving and interconnected world.