The IT department is testing Web Browser Roulette (WBR), a program they hope will increase compliance with our web browsing policies while also providing cheap voyeuristic thrills. Once an hour, during a randomly selected minute, a live feed of one arbitrarily selected employee’s web browser will be displayed on all monitors across the Company. Like many things in life, it’ll be mortifying when it happens to you, and wildly entertaining when it happens to others.
If your browser is selected and you’re looking at LOL cats, we’re all looking at LOL cats. If you’re reading erotic fiction based on the world of Twilight, we’re all reading erotic fiction based on the world of Twilight (Please do not read or write erotic fiction based on the world of Twilight).
From time to time WBR will select for the live feed an employee who is not currently browsing the internet. In these instances, the program will simply visit the last 10 sites in the employee’s browser history. Browser history, as you know, is recorded daily and added to your ever growing file on record.
Some employees will notice WBR is similar in concept to Jeremy Bentham’s panopticon, a tower designed to give prisoners the impression they were under constant supervision, even though they couldn’t see if they were actually being watched at a given moment. Bentham was on to something, but WBR improves upon his idea, as this program includes the possibility of catching someone viewing embarrassing web sites.
[Photo: Hidden Rasha by KaiChanVong]
Attention!Employees 