For anyone who has watched the series Undercover Boss, they know that Big Brother doesn't just come in the form of some lurking, unnamed government entity watching your every move through the fuzz on your television. More than likely, it's your slightly balding, middle-aged boss making sure that you're not filing your nails on company time. As technology improves, so does the diversity of methods used to track your every move on the job.

With social media, employers can monitor your posts, view your pages and take snapshots. Last year, 2 percent of employers said they terminated workers for content posted on personal social-networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace; 1 percent lost their jobs due to videos posted on sites such as YouTube.

According to an article in USA Today, a quarter of companies said they fired employees for e-mail policy violations in 2009, up from 14 percent in 2001, according to an American Management Association/ePolicy Institute poll. And 4 percent of companies said they've had IM-related terminations - double the 2 percent in 2006.

Managers use technological advances to capture workers' computer keystrokes, monitor the websites they frequent, and even track their whereabouts through GPS-enabled cellphones. Some companies have gone as far as using webcams and minuscule video cameras to secretly record employees' movements.One reason for all the spying is financial pressure. Everyone is trying to get leaner and meaner, and monitoring employee productivity is one way to do it. The other reason is that it's easier than ever. It used to be difficult and expensive to monitor employees, and now, it's easy and cheap.

Employers no longer have to hire a pricey private investigator to install a complicated video system or computer-use tracking devices. Now, they can easily buy software and tiny worker-tracking cameras at a local electronics store or through Internet retailers.

Smarsh, one of many firms that offers technology to monitor, archive and search employee e-mails, IMs, Twitter posts and text-messages, services about 10,000 U.S. workplaces.

That means employers can track which websites workers visit, the instant messages they send to co-workers, even e-mails sent through personal accounts - such as Gmail - while employees are logged onto the company network or using company-owned equipment such as a laptop.

Do you think that employer snooping is a violation of privacy or a necessary evil to prevent people goofing off on company time?