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Story URL: http://www.silicon.com/retailandleisure/0,3800011842,39168521,00.htm

Social network sites scuttled by shipping business
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By Julian Goldsmith

Published: Friday 21 September 2007

Shipping and tanker agency Graypen has installed web filtering technology across its network to make sure its staff don't spend too much time having fun online when they should be working.

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The UK-based company has 24 offices and 135 staff, who all had full access to the internet. But with the increased popularity of social networking sites, chatrooms and online shopping, the company has been forced to monitor and curtail staff browsing activities.

Graypen IT manager David Scott used a web filtering application from software specialist Bloxx to cut back on the amount of non-work related internet activity by staff.

Scott said: "The staff were spending too much time online. Even though the company had an acceptable use policy for internet usage in place, we had no easy way of actually analysing usage or ensuring compliance."

The application blocks sites by category, rather than individually, which makes sure individuals can't get round usage policies.

Scott said: "In any company, some people think they are smarter than the [filtering] solution and they try to access obscure international sites or use anonymous proxies to bypass it. However, most users eventually give up. This system is too smart for them."