Question

1. A "sniffer" is a software program that records information that passes through a computer or a connected router. If you owned an e-business with multiple employees would you use a sniffer? Why or why not?  

2. If you were going to use a sniffer program, would you notify employees about it? Why or why not?

Answer 1

Q1) E-business involves doing business through internet and hence requires a very effective networking solution to handle the huge volume of data traffic to avoid any downtime to the system and other system issues. To manage the data traffic effectively, it is important that a software is used to continuously montior and record the information that passes through the computers. Sniffer is a software program that meets the requirement of data monitoring to ensure the website doesn't face any performance issues.

Q2) Notifying employees of the usage of a sniffer program depends on the amount of network monitoring that the firm does. If the monitoring is filtered where the business specific data elements are monitored, employees can choose either to notify or not. But, if it is an unfiltered monitoring where along with the business specific information, even personal information is being monitored, it makes ethical sense for the firm to notify the employees as the main intent is to effectively manage network rather than to view the employee's personal information.