Telephone Monitoring

Telephone-based surveillance is another traditional and still commonly used form of surveillance. In the workplace, telephone-based surveillance takes two forms: telephone call accounting and service observation. Telephone call accounting is a form of surveillance that records the time, length and destination of telephone calls. The primary purpose of telephone call accounting is as a business tool to allocate costs, but employers also use it as a means of monitoring the number of personal calls made by employees. Service observation is a more intrusive form of telephonic surveillance as it entails listening in on telephone conversations between employees and customers or other third parties. It is commonly used by telemarketing companies, airlines and in other areas where telephone operators work. Service observation can be used to check if employees are adhering to customer service policies, to monitor the number of calls handled and time taken per call, and as a training device.