Readout
How this is written
Method, and the limits it holds to.
For a separate operational view of time, ownership and team activity, see the Monitask overview.
Mechanism, then class, then names
Articles describe how something works before recommending anything, and selections name the class of problem before naming any product. A product chosen before the class is a coin toss with a purchase order attached, because the classes solve unrelated problems.
No scores
We publish no ratings out of ten and no editor's scores. A score implies a measurement, and we have not made one. We also make no claim to have tested any product, because we have not.
Prices
Published rates in this market change quarterly. Where a figure appears here it carries the date it was read and the source it came from. Where a price would be useful and we cannot date it, we describe the pricing structure instead and say so.
Sources and their interests
Standards bodies, regulators, court judgments and published engineering literature are named as such. Vendor material is named as vendor material and treated as advocacy, because a company publishing a number about its own product has an interest in that number. Figures that cannot be traced to a stated method do not appear.
What we cannot verify
Every article ends under that heading with real limits: measurement conditions, who published a claim, what depends on a system we have not seen, and where this publication has an interest of its own.
Every option carries its cost
In selections, each option lists what it is good for and what you pay for that, including options we think are sensible. That line is the reason the rest is worth reading.
Jurisdiction
Legal material names the country it describes, stays general, and is not advice. Rules differ by country and often below that, they change, and the applicable rule is the one where the monitored people or systems are.
What is not published here
Nothing on this site describes how to monitor people without their knowledge, how to avoid a notification duty, or how to make capture difficult to detect. That limit holds however a question is framed.
Accessibility
The site runs without JavaScript except on calculator pages, where a fully computed table is present first and scripting only makes it interactive. Every page is one click from the home page, controls meet a minimum touch target, and contrast is calculated rather than estimated.
Further context
For a primary, standards or institutional reference, see the official text of the GDPR.
Start from the class of problem, not the list of tools
Every selection here names the situation first and the criteria second. Product names come last, and each one carries the line describing what it costs you.