To ensure employees do what they’re supposed to, some employers have begun using surveillance apps and programs to monitor worker productivity.  This has raised some worker privacy concerns and the questions of whether this is legal or proper.  Employers have been monitoring employees since the dawn of the employer-employee relationship. In the Internet age, with the ubiquity of laptops, tablets and smartphones, what the employer can do has gone up a notch.  Employers can keep track of what employees type, record internet activity, take screenshots, and use the company-owned device’s webcam.  As a general rule, when using your employer’s equipment while on your employer’s network, your employer will have the right to monitor what you do. If you’re on your own device and using your own Internet connection, it’s less likely to be legal if your employer monitors you, although it still is often perfectly legal. Employees in some states may have slightly more employee privacy protections.  For example, some states, like Maryland, Illinois and California have “all-consent” or “two-party consent” laws that require everyone involved in an electronic communication or telephone call to consent to the monitoring.  A few states require employers to give notice to employees before monitoring can take place. Connecticut and Delaware are two such states with specific laws on the books, although Connecticut’s law might not apply when the employee is working from home.  The bottom line: most employers can legally monitor what you do while working as long as it’s for legitimate business purposes or they have your consent. If you decide to engage in personal activities during business hours, you will usually do so at your own risk.  Read More >>

Motherboard and PCMag have found something incredibly terrifying.  An antivirus program used by hundreds of millions of people around the world is selling highly sensitive web browsing data to many of the world’s biggest companies.  The Avast antivirus program installed on a person’s computer collects data, and that Jumpshot repackages it into various different products that are then sold to many of the largest companies in the world.  Avast claims to have more than 435 million active users per month, and Jumpshot says it has data from 100 million devices. Avast collects data from users that opt-in and then provides that to Jumpshot, but multiple Avast users told Motherboard they were not aware Avast sold browsing data, raising questions about how informed that consent is.  The data obtained by Motherboard and PCMag includes Google searches, lookups of locations and GPS coordinates on Google Maps, people visiting companies’ LinkedIn pages, particular YouTube videos, and people visiting porn websites.  Read More >>

Chuck Shirley and Relina DeDios-Shirley were recruiters when they started HIDEit Mounts, a company that designs and sells device mounts that camouflage game consoles and cable boxes. Their online business was growing steadily, but when they did some detective work on a competitor, they discovered they were being copycatted–by one of their own manufacturers. Read more>>

Any comprehensive business plan will include an estimate of start-up costs, considering everything from rent and employee wages to inventory and insurance, and also legal fees. The best way to get a sense of what your startup’s legal fees may be, and how to save on them, is to talk to a local business attorney. Read More>>