Tracking Software Glossary

Ever wonder what some of these phrases mean? It can be confusing for some with much of the lingo that you hear about with regards to tracking software. Because of that, we have started to compile a list of phrases with accurate definitions so you can understand exactly what it means.

Activity Tracking
Activity tracking is a general term that is used when somebody would like to track what has been done on one or more computers.

Chat tracking
Ability to track chat and instant message conversations

Computer Tracking (also known as computer monitoring)
The ability to track what is done on a computer.

Cyber bullying
When a group or individual intimidates another person online. This comes in many forms (Chat, Message boards, blogs etc..)

Cyber Stalking
There are ties when a person is constantly being harassed by a person on every web site they go to. It is the same thing as “real world” stalking, but is done online.

Document tracking
Recording activity from word processing applications (example MS Word, MS Office, MS works)

Email tracking
Software that records emails sent and received.

Enterprise tracking software (also known as Business tracking software and employee web tracking)
Many companies need to have the ability to track all employee activity, some companies have thousands of computer and would like to track all activity throughout their entire organization.

File transfer tracking
With the ease of moving files from a computer to a removable media drive many companies and parents want to keep track of what files have been sent to removable media drives like thumb drives, floppy discs, and CD re-writeable discs.

Keylogger (also known as a keystroke logger)
A keylogger can come in two forms; hardware which is very detectable, and software which is more sophisticated. A software keylogger will track any key that has been typed on the computer. Some keyloggers (like SpectorSoft products) will allow you to see a password when you would normally see an asterisk mark.
(Example ***** would reveal a password)

MySpace tracking
MySpace.com is a popular social network where people can connect and communicate among each other via chats, web mail, blogs, and profiles just to mention a few. Specialized tracking software like Spector Pro recognizes the importance of being able to record any of the activity within myspace.com.

Password logging
Generalized term used to record passwords. In most cases you can find a password in the keylogging tools.

P2P tracking
Several years ago P2P (peer to peer) file sharing became mainstream. P2P recording is intended to track all activity done through common file sharing applications.

Search engine tracking
To track the words entered in a search engine.

Remote Tracking Software
Remote tracking software is a program that is installed on the target computer and will send recorded activity to a remote location. eBlaster is also the ONLY remote tracking software that has an option to install the software from a distance.

Snapshot tracking
Consider a snapshot to be a camera. Snapshot tracking will take pictures of the computer monitor every few seconds and store the activity in the order the pictures were taken. Snapshot tracking is a visual recording technology.

Spy Software
Spy software is a generalized term used to describe tracking the activity on a computer.

User activity tracking
Tracking the activity for each Windows user account.

Web tracking
Recording web sites that people visit. Some web site tracking tools will also provide you with the ability to block web sites from being visited.