Effective Monitoring
This is the meat and potatoes of any internet monitoring software. Be careful, because there are several companies out there that claim their product monitors things such as IMs and Email, but really all their program does is record keystrokes.
You need a program that's going to allow you to see both sides of an IM conversation, sent and received email, all web pages visited (not just web addresses typed), AND show you screen shots of any activity you've labeled as important.
Remote data access / web-based access / Accessibility of information
This is a
very close second in our eyes to 'Monitoring effectiveness'. Here's why:
What use is monitoring software if you can't get to the data?! Whether you are trying to monitor your children or your employees, you are going to have to find a way to view the recorded information, and often without the person knowing it.
How do you do that if the person is using the computer exactly when you want to be monitoring things?
Our advice: go with a program that offers some kind of web-based access to the recorded information. With today's encryption it's safe and convenient.
Remote data access--especially via a web interface is the ONLY way to go as far as we're concerned.
Stealth
For obvious reasons, this is a critical feature for most people. While people with very young kids may not need this, if you want to have any hope of seeing what the person you're monitoring does when (they think) no one is looking, you need a program that runs entirely in the background, invisibly.
Key Logger
This is often a highly underappreciated and misunderstood feature of good monitoring software or an add-on hardware device. Good invisible keystroke loggers do a couple of things, among which they:
- Record usernames and passwords--even ones that are "starred out"
(i.e. data shown as ****** on the screen)
- Capture those things that might otherwise be missed
- Properly format data into something readable. The lesser ones offer
no mechanism to clean up the deletes/backspaces, etc.
- Report what program was used--and when--to record key strokes.
One other interesting note about keyloggers is that there are two primary types of keystroke loggers:
- hardware keyloggers: physical plugs that attach (hopefully secretly) to the back of the computer where the keyboard plugs in.
- software keyloggers: software applications that install on the monitored individual's computer.
Hardware Key Loggers
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Pros
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Cons
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- Generally very reliable.
- Most are inexpensive.
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- Extremely limited functionality.
Most people need more than to just record keystrokes. We can't stress this one enough.
- Requires repeated access to monitored computer.
This is a risky proposition for most folks.
- Easily detected.
How hard is it to look at the back of your computer for something unusual sticking out of the keyboard socket?
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Software Key Loggers
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Pros
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Cons
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- Generally very reliable.
- The best key loggers also record:
A. What program was the individual using?
Put another way: what was it that triggered the keystroke logging.
B. Switching between multiple applications
(or back-and-forth even)
- Data formatting abilities.
This is NOT a standard feature but a big "must-have". This makes viewing the
recorded data far easier than wrestling with raw unformatted data alone.
- Usually harder to detect / easier to conceal.
Unlike hardware key loggers there's no physical device to easily spot.
Detection usually requires specialized software looking for key logging activity, and even this can be a mixed bag.
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- Nothing is 100% fool-proof.
- Quality makes a big difference.
Lesser-quality applications that may be crash-prone may miss recording the most important things if they crash. (Translation: be sure to buy good software.)
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One last note on both hardware and software keyloggers:
Quite often people interchangably use the terms "ghost key logger" or "invisible key logger" to describe these devices / applications.
No matter the name, "ghost", "invisible", or "stealth", the point is the same: to silently record key strokes typed on a monitored individual's computer, thus we tend to omit the "ghost", "invisible", and "stealth" in describing them. It's easier just to say, "key logger". :-)
Ability to block
If you're trying to be completely invisible and have older kids, blocking is probably unwise as it draws attention to the fact that something is going on behind the scenes.
But if you have young kids, you need something that will clean up the internet--this is the group where blocking really comes in. Since the Internet changes so fast, we suggest software that has some kind of contextual blocker and is more than just a list of 'blocked sites'.
Data filtering
Most of what is recorded on the typical computer is mundane. Going through that data ranges from a tedious job to a downright waste of time to search through for the important things that you're looking for.
Make sure the software you purchase has some kind of data filter or "alert" word system that will do as much of this leg work for you as possible.
Bear in mind, most of these systems are going to need to be told what's important for you. (Put another way: words or content that
may be important for a Catholic family to be on the lookout for may be quite different from the words and content that
may be important for a family of Jewish or Muslim or other faith to be on the lookout for.)
Screenshots
Most of the good monitoring applications out there take screenshots. But few of them let you trigger those screenshots with an alert word. Left on a timer, screenshots can quickly become overwhelming.
