The only thing about this article that seems intrusive is the discussion about monitoring employees.

Understandably, there are people who will take advantage of Telecommuting. It would probably be better to not let that type of employee Telecommute rather than constantly monitoring them.

Also, for those who've proven they are trustworthy, is it really necessary to heavily monitor them? I think that is overkill.

Those are a few things to think about.

I think the monitoring information is less usable/applicable than the article implies. There's no way to monitor anything except the programs a person is actively using. That means -unless the person is using a company provided VOIP solution- any phone call with clients, customers, fellow employees, vendors, etc. is unrecorded. Any time the employee spends reading printed material, or writing the old fashioned way, is unrecorded. Etc. etc. Personally, I always print out documents I need to review and rewrite; It's too hard to read long documents on screen. One other issue: Employers are required to pay overtime to staff who work extra hours. For hourly paid employees, that's any hours over the base 40. For salaried employees, employers are supposed to pay for excessive overtime. It's dependent on a logging of work hours. So if you have telecommuters who keep putting in long days, adding in on the weekends (Think IT, support staff, sales, especially), etc. for you, that log is proof to the government that you're not paying them what they deserve. And you're required by law to keep those logs.

Smarter to think of monitoring as a way to find the person who is viciously taking advantage of telecommuting, spending the day surfing bikini clad chicks. That person probably had the same behaviors in the office, but if you weren't monitoring, you didn't know. Expect that your staff will spend some time on personal behavior; surfing, emailing, etc. Your office staff does too, an hour and a half a day is average. You'll probably get more time out of your telecommuting staff, they tend to make that up. You'll find a small proportion of your staff are the screw ups, and that most people are accomplishing more work, and are dedicated to getting things done.

One of the major issues I see with companies that allow workers to telecommute, is the security vulnerabilities they are exposing to their company. I cannot tell you how many employees and firms I deal with that do not properly set-up virtual offices for employees. In one case a former employer of mine, had allowed employee's to telecommute. What I found was that a overwhelming majority of employee’s did not understand the threat's and vulnerabilities they were opening up by installing applications and documents onto their networks.

Companies that allow employees to telecommute should consider all the security risks inherent in WIFI connections, as well as desktop security and monitoring.

Your data is at risk even when using a private network, such as commonly found at airport’s and coffee shops.