Is it legal to monitor the use of a computer (or phone)?

Published on: March 03rd, 2015

Through use of software it is possible to monitor everything done on a computer.  Everything from email, to social media post, to web browsing, even capturing every keystroke.   There are a great number of reasons why you might want to do this, but is it legal?   Well, before we actually answer this question lets put out a legal disclaimer – we are not lawyers.  Despite my wife’s continued believe that I should be a lawyer because she thinks I like to argue, it is not true.   If you are truly in a legal question of the law you should seek advise from a lawyer.

Having got that out of the way, this is our understanding of this legal question.  Like many things there is not a yes or no answer to this because it vary situational.   We’ll discuss a couple different situations.

A parent wanting to monitor their depend child’s computer use:  Absolutely legal.  While we would encourage you to have an open discussion about how to use the computer, set some guidelines about its use, in the end its the parents responsibility to protect and develop their child how they best see fit.

A company wanting to monitor an employee’s use of company assets: Absolutely legal.   Note I used the word assets and not just computer.  I want to call attention to the fact that a company can monitor really anything that is considered a company asset.  This could be the computer or email address they provided you or even the internet connection.  So even if you are at home, using your computer, and your internet service but the companies email, they can still be monitoring that email.  Same thing if you’re using the company computer at home everything that goes on with that computer can be monitored.   Same thing if you are using your computer at work on the company internet connection everything that goes through that internet connection can be monitored.  It call all be legally monitored.  If you want to keep it private do not use a company asset at all.
Employers, you should make sure that you are upfront with your employees and claim your right to monitor your assets by establishing an Acceptable Use Policy.   It also helps you to have a disclaimer, reminder or disclaimer that displays on your assets from time to time.  This only firms up your legal right to monitor your assets.

A tech support company monitoring customers computers and technology assets:  Here I think this could be done both legally and illegal.  It should never be done without your express knowledge and permission.  Computer Troubleshooters of Southwest Austin does offer several monitored services.  I think it is import to clarify that there are different types of monitoring – just because you have a monitored service is does not mean we see every thing done on you devices.
We do provide:

• Monitored backup service where we can see the status of your backup; was it successful, what files failed to backup, and sometimes what files where backed up.   It does not give us access to actually see or access those the files without additional consent from you.
• Monitored Anti-malware and content filtering – It tells us the status of your anti-malware program; is it running; when was the last update; when was the last scan; we get notified if it detects something.  The content filtering does block some websites and reports on those sites that are blocked.  Please note on content filtering the only thing we require to be blocked are sites know to be a source of malware.  This does include P2P sites, Bit-torrents and proxy sites.
• RMM – Remote Management and Monitoring – This is a service where we can monitor your computers performance and errors.  As well as monitor update status and push white-listed updates to your computers.  Note while, we get alerts as to the status of your devices we do not see what is being done on them.
  (One point to clarify here – If we are using remote control software to work on your computer, we can see everything on that computer while we are connected.  Unless other arrangements have been made with you (your company) specifically, the remote control software we use requires you to initiate the connection, we cannot just connect to your computer.)
• We can help a parent or company with setting up greater monitoring as well.  We do not actually do the monitoring where you can see every email, social media post, web site visited, or every key stroke enter.  If you do need this we can help you (or the right person) get this setup.

I do believe there might be a few “tech guys” who do this stuff not on the up and up.   Point being if you have a “tech guy” – you might want to ask them what kind of control they have to your system – During your connection with them and after.  If you have any concern about what we have access to please ask.

Monitoring another adult person or legal entities computers (or assets) without their knowledge and permission:  Most likely illegal.   There are a few exceptions here.  Note above where I am talk about companies monitoring their assets.   If you are using your Personal Computer at work and work’s network and internet connection, you should expect that all network traffic is monitored.  I suppose law enforcement might be able to get a court order to monitor your computers.  However, say you install monitoring software on your spouse’s computer, because you don’t trust him or her, that is absolutely illegal.  If you do not trust your spouse that much, seriously seek the advise of a lawyer before you do something stupid that is going to only hurt whatever case you think you’re building against your spouse.