Monitoring software products belong to the kind of specialized software, designed to record information about PC users’ activity. There are also programs for monitoring other devices, such as tablets and smartphones.

The set of monitoring programs’ features can vary, depending on the purpose of a particular product, the program developer, etc.

As a rule, these programs register the following actions:

• the date and time when the computer was turned on and off;
• which keys on the keyboard were pressed and when;
• mouse clicks and movements;
• file activity (i.e., create, copy, delete);
• changes made in the system registry;
• emails received and sent;
• tasks sent to the printer;
• etc.

In addition, many monitoring programs intercept information from windows and the contents of the clipboard, take screenshots of active windows (at certain intervals) or record video of the screen.

Some programs of this type can even eavesdrop and spy on the user, intercepting the sound from the microphone and images from the webcams.

Strictly speaking, Computer monitoring software (computer surveillance) is a general term, covering multiple kinds of such software. These programs can be called differently, depending on where they are used and what for. The two most popular types of monitoring programs are the following:

• Employee monitoring software (workplace monitoring software, software for computer surveillance in the workplace) – the programs intended for tracking and controlling the actions of PC users. These software products are used in workplaces to prevent violations of discipline;
• Parental control software (Programs for parental control). They are used in families with children and adolescents to track their activities on home PCs.

These three types of monitoring software may be similar in functionality. Their main difference is the number of PCs that can be monitored (parental control programs, as a rule, can control up to 5 machines, and employee monitoring products – up to hundreds and even more).

Access control software also belongs to monitoring programs. This kind of software was designed to control access to PCs or individual applications, programs, and web resources.

If you have been looking for information about computer monitoring, you probably came across such a term as “a keylogger”. Keyloggers (key loggers, keystroke loggers, key recorders, key trappers, keylogging programs, key capture programs) are programs that were originally designed to register keystrokes pressed on a computer keyboard.

Over time, keyloggers acquired a number of additional functions: now they can take screenshots, intercept the contents from windows, and so on, which turns them into full-fledged PC monitoring programs.

Sometimes computer monitoring programs are labeled “spyware” (spy software). This term, however, is not fully accurate: as long as this software is used without violating the law, it has nothing to do with espionage. Software manufacturers and sellers may call monitoring software “spyware” for marketing purposes and advertise them as a great tool for, say, catching a cheating spouse. But you had better not do this: such an action would be a violation of privacy, which is a disciplinable offence in most countries. Remember: you can install any type of monitoring software only on the devices you own.

So, who will benefit from applying monitoring programs the most?

Here are just a couple of variants:

1. Company owners, as well as managers, directors or security officers (of course, with the permission of the company owner).

By correctly applying monitoring software, they will be able to:

• detect and prevent violations of the company’s security policies and discipline – from waste of working time to “leaking” classified information to competitors;
• quickly recover important information after failures of the corporate computer systems;
• timely detect attempts of unauthorized access to workplace computers by means of brute-forcing;
• effectively investigate security incidents;
• control use of employees’ personal computers during working and non-working hours;
• get access to the data stored on the hard disk of any corporate PC in case the username and/or password is lost.

2. Parents of schoolchildren, especially teenagers.

Monitoring programs will help them:

• limit the time the child spends at their computer;
• restrict or prohibit the child from launching specific applications;
• limit the time spent using any program or visiting a certain web resource (e.g., Facebook, TikTok, etc.);
• track the sites the child visits;
• prohibit the child from visiting certain sites or sites devoted to a particular subject.

In other words, monitoring software helps employers and parents guarantee efficient and safe use of computers in a workplace or at home.