An article about Xobni was published in the Sunday edition of the Boston Globe this weekend with the title “Software may let boss spot your e-mail abuse.” While we appreciate the attention, we feel Xobni is misrepresented.

We have been talking to prospective customers since we started Xobni and not one has been interested in monitoring their employee’s personal email usage. We are constantly citing sources arguing that allowing employees to write personal email increases productivity.

Xobni Analytics is not about spying on employees. It’s about improving the business process. Which emails waste the most time? What customer is the engineering team most actively emailing, and what is being discussed? How quickly do we respond to emails from customers? How much time do people spend reading and writing email, and about what topics?

We have been talking with Lewis Mathby of PrivacyWatch.org regarding employee privacy issues. He likes Xobni. Why? Our software empowers individual employees and involves them in the privacy discussion. For example, we provide a mechanism for employees to identify personal email addresses and remove that activity from the business decision process.

There is a fine line to walk between saving the company from “Forwarding Fred” and respecting personal privacy. By working with users we can create the right solution.

As cliché as it sounds, happy employees are productive employees. We think the reverse is true too; productive employees are happy employees.

We like doing things in reverse here at Xobni.