8 Ways to Detect Employee Monitoring Software

Your employees can find out if you are running employee monitoring software, such as Wolfeye, to see if they are working up to their potential or wasting precious company hours checking their e-mail or posting on social media. The following includes the steps your employees may take to see if you have installed employee monitoring software to track them:

Search Task Manager

The task manager will allow you to see what is running on your computer. If you press Control, Shift, and Escape, you pull up the task manager. You can also locate it in the Windows search bar. Monitoring tools eat up:

• CPU
• RAM
• Disk usage

If they see anything questionable, all they have to do is search Google for information. However, some employee monitoring tools have a stealth installation mode, which means your employees cannot see what is put in place by utilizing a task manager. If you are as clever as a fox, you can easily disguise these tools and make them look like a system.

The Command Line  

These snoopy employees just won’t quit! When a worker is determined, they will exhaust all avenues to determine if you use monitoring software. They may check their device’s data usage if they see an unknown app on their computer. How they do this:

• Run the command line as administrator
• Punch in the command in the opened window
• Check through the list of applications

This scenario is how your workers can see each application’s name that connects to the internet. If the employee is not privy to the required information to perform this process, they will not be able to find out.

Login Items

Your employees may find spyware by checking the startup section of their computer. To see startup applications:

• Open systems preferences
• Click on system preferences
• (Once open) click on users and groups

You will notice a list of users on the computer. Go to username and click the login items tab. A list of software running on the computer will come up. This is one of the ways your employees can see if there is employee monitoring software on the computer.

Download Anti-Spyware Software

Many antivirus tools can detect employee monitoring software. However, once again, if your employee does not have clearance, they cannot accomplish “diddly squat.” The good news is that it will advise you when an attempt such as this is made. Most employee monitoring solutions must be equipped to operate at the user level, so any attempts to uncover monitoring software will be futile.

Trend Micro offers one example of a program an employee can use to check for spyware. It is called HouseCall. When the program is installed, they can use the on-demand scan option to search for any employee monitoring software that may be tracking them. Some other programs can also check for:

• Trojans
• Worm viruses
• Keystroke logging tools

Several programs can help your employees find employee monitoring software. If your employee wants to be careful and thorough, they may use a more comprehensive paid program to check for spyware, as the free versions are limited. 

Traffic Monitoring

Traffic monitoring is another way your employees can determine if you have installed employee monitoring software. Traffic monitoring helps them see all traffic on their device. They can disconnect their computer from the internet and then turn it back on to discern if there is a robust data transfer; if there is, your employee may be able to tell they are being watched. 

Check Firewall Settings

Your employees can check the computer’s ports through the firewall settings. Anytime spyware has been installed into the computer, a port will be necessary to transmit information. You must open the run command box, type control, and hit enter. Click on the firewall, and at the bottom of the computer screen, the first option is to click on allow an app through the firewall. Your employee may see a suspicious program telling them you are “spying” on them.

Check Webcam

Your employee may check the webcam to see if you are watching them. Hopefully, you did not go this far. However, if you did install a webcam to spy on your employees, it should only be to track employee productivity or to see if your workers are stealing from the company. However, as an employer, it is perfectly legal to spy on your employees this way.

Gaining Privileged Information

Some employees will go as far as to try and establish relationships with the people involved in employee monitoring practices. For example, they could attempt to finagle information from an HR person responsible for examining reports on employee productivity and whether the work performed among the employees within the company is adequate. Anyone who could be involved in determining employee performance is fair game.