The Watch Facility is an inexpensive ICOBOL Runtime System Add-On. It enables
watching or controlling another user's ICommander session when there are
multiple users.
ICommander did not initially recommend use of this facility as its initial release was solely aimed at "spying" on employee activity. There was no way to block a user from being watched nor to know when it had been used.
The Watch Facility now does allow blocking a user from being watched and its use is implemented in ICommander wherein we always have a trail of its use. ICommander does NOT give any user the privilege to watch or control other terminals by default. A user must first be authorized to access the ICommander Management Utilities and then must temporarily activate the Watch Privilege in order to use it. If there is a need to watch or control a user for which this is blocked, that user may temporarily change his or her privileges to not block the watching.
We now encourage all customers for which we have remote access to their Linux Server via the Internet to install the Watch Facility. It helps immensely to be able to see the screens a user is referring to when we receive a call for help or explanation. The ability to take control of the remote users session and to then let him or her watch what we are doing is also very useful at times.
It may be a very useful tool in the same manner for customers who have several users and/or sites and are providing support internally.
The "spying" use of this Facility may be useful to some customers when they are
concerned about particular employees. We believe it is better used only as a
support and instructional tool but there may be cases where circumstances lead
to a need to monitor what a particular staff member is doing.