With their businesses' best interest in mind, more and more business owners have started monitoring their employees' Web usage. In fact, 73 percent of U.S. businesses monitor their employees' Internet usage, according to an April 2000 survey conducted by the New York-based American Management Association.

The idea of Big Brother has never gone over well with employees. But it is legal - you have the right to monitor your employees without them knowing.

While some employees may view this watchful eye as an invasion of privacy, businesses have concerns that go beyond just being nosey or even keeping such a close eye on their employees' productivity. Small businesses can't afford network congestion or a clogged bandwidth due to employees' nonbusiness Web use.

And legally, an employer can be held liable if an employee is accessing offensive material. For example, if one employee offends another by showing them pornography online, you the employer could have a sexual harassment case on your hands.

If you think Internet monitoring is right for your business, you have a number of options. Filtering software, sometimes also referred to as Internet access management software, gets very detailed - telling you when your employees are online, what sites they are visiting, and how much bandwidth they use up while online. Despite some differences between the various kinds of Internet access management software, they all basically do the same thing: track your employees and generate detailed reports on their individual activities.

You can also go the route of software that actually takes pictures, called screenshots, every so often of where your employees have been on the Web. You will know not only where your employees have been but also what they've been doing while there. If your employees have visited a chat room, for example, you'll be able to see what they have written.

If you think these in-depth picks are a little much, there are alternatives. If your objective is to keep your employees off sites not related to their job, Web-blocking software will do the trick by blocking visits to gaming, shopping, or pornographic sites.

By using this less intrusive Web-blocking software, you won't have to set aside time to go through reports, and your employees won't feel spied on. And you could save money - Internet access management software will run you a few hundred dollars while blocking software costs around $30.

You may encounter some resistance at first when installing the software, but if you feel the need to monitor your employees, don't expect them to be dead set against it. In a survey conducted by the New York career site Vault.com, 53 percent of the 451 employees surveyed said they feel their employers have the right to monitor them.

The point is, there's a difference between monitoring and spying. If you think Web tracking will help your business, be open with your employees and let them know it's going on and why.