On Surveillance in the Workplace

guest · Mar 12, 2019

On Surveillance in the Workplace
March 12, 2019
https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2019/03/on_surveillance.html

Data & Society just published a report entitled "Workplace Monitoring & Surveillance":

Prediction and flagging tools that aim to predict characteristics or behaviors of employees or that are designed to identify or deter perceived rule-breaking or fraud.
Biometric and health data of workers collected through tools like wearables, fitness tracking apps, and biometric timekeeping systems as a part of employer- provided health care programs, workplace wellness, and digital tracking work shifts tools.
Remote monitoring and time-tracking used to manage workers and measure performance remotely.
Gamification and algorithmic management of work activities through continuous data collection.
In a blog post about this report, Cory Doctorow mentioned "the adoption curve for oppressive technology, which goes, 'refugee, immigrant, prisoner, mental patient, children, welfare recipient, blue collar worker, white collar worker.'"

I don't agree with the ordering, but the sentiment is correct. These technologies are generally used first against people with diminished rights: prisoners, children, the mentally ill, and soldiers.
Click to expand...

Explainer: Workplace Monitoring & Surveillance (PDF - 1.12 MB): https://datasociety.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/DS_Workplace_Monitoring_Surveillance_Explainer.pdf

mirimir · Mar 13, 2019

You really can't expect privacy when using your employer's gear. Or even their network. Just because it's their stuff. And you might be attacking them, or at least carelessly putting them at risk. So if you want privacy at work, use your own gear. And maybe a VPN service too.

guest · Mar 15, 2019

Australia Post rules out video performance 'monitoring' of staff amid union row
Analytics collides with privacy
March 14, 2019
https://www.itnews.com.au/news/aust...nce-monitoring-of-staff-amid-union-row-520522

The government-owned mail and logistics business [...] confirmed it will continue to limit the use of its camera’s to “security and safety” after being accused by the union of a bid to expand staff monitoring.

The surveillance tussle with the CEPU boiled over earlier this year after the union accused Post of “a disgraceful breach of privacy law” by trying to use cameras in retail outlets “to monitor employees without meeting the requirements of legislation that prevents this”.
The increasing sophistication and quality of surveillance video, especially when coupled with advanced analytics that can identify productivity issues, has become increasingly appealing to employers seeking to optimise workplace performance.

However, the use of surveillance is again in union crosshairs, with the CEPU noting a recent case it represented stemmed from when “an employee was questioned and inappropriately targeted in their workplace as a result of being surveilled.”
Click to expand...

guest · Jul 20, 2019

Employers are mining the data their workers generate to figure out what they’re up to, and with whom
There’s almost nothing you can do about it
July 19, 2019
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-new-ways-your-boss-is-spying-on-you-11563528604?mod=rsswn

Your employer may know a lot more about you than you think.
It’s not just emails that are being tallied and analyzed. Companies are increasingly sifting through texts, Slack chats and, in some cases, recorded and transcribed phone calls on mobile devices.

Advocates of using surveillance technology in the workplace say the insights allow companies to better allocate resources, spot problem employees earlier and suss out high performers. Critics warn that the proliferating tools may not be nuanced enough to result in fair, equitable judgments.

Now companies are getting smarter at analyzing the trove of worker data in their possession.
One of the newest frontiers is dissecting phone calls and conference room conversations. In some cases, tonal analysis can help diagnose culture issues on a team, showing who dominates conversations, who demurs and who resists efforts to engage in emotional discussions.
Click to expand...

Laszlo Bock, who helped found the concept of “people analytics” during his tenure at Alphabet Inc. ’s Google, warns that employers are in danger of making their workers uncomfortable by monitoring their every move and message. He is now CEO of an employee survey company called Humu.
Click to expand...

guest · Jul 24, 2019

Don’t Put Your Work Email on Your Personal Phone
Mobile Device Management potentially gives your company the ability to spy on your location, your web browsing, and more
July 23, 2019
https://onezero.medium.com/dont-put-your-work-email-on-your-personal-phone-ef7fef956c2f

Many of us have given up on the idea of carrying around a dedicated work phone. After all, why bother when you can get everything you need on your personal smartphone?
Here’s one reason: Your work account might be spying on you in the background.

When you add a work email address to your phone, you’ll likely be asked to install something called a Mobile Device Management (MDM) profile. Chances are, you’ll blindly accept it.
From your company’s perspective, there are obvious security reasons for installing an MDM on an employee’s phone. But for employees, it’s difficult to tell what these invisible profiles are collecting behind the scenes, as they provide people at your company with invisible control over your device.
Peering into your life
They can mitigate security breaches or potential harm from a rogue employee; if you work for a law firm, say, and your boss worries you’re leaking sensitive emails from your smartphone, they could remotely wipe your data.
Click to expand...

MDM functionality was around before this shift, but with the smartphone boom, it became a core part of IT policy.

Personally, I would prefer to keep work off of my personal phone altogether. The most powerful thing you can do to protect yourself in the first place might mean keeping your work email off your own phone and demanding a work-provided one.
Click to expand...

guest · Jul 25, 2019

Anyway you aren't supposed to do personal stuff at work, so you shouldn't have anything to hide there, hence you should not worry that your employer monitors you.

guest · Aug 1, 2019

Four ways your boss can access your private data
July 31, 2019
https://betanews.com/2019/07/31/four-ways-your-boss-can-access-your-private-data/

Privacy is a currency these days. With social media, target advertising, and constant connectivity, it’s harder than ever to keep elements of your private life truly private. This crisis of privacy becomes especially concerning in the context of the workplace.
In the old days, it was easy to keep your work life and your personal life entirely separate. Today, those boundaries are blurrier than they used to be, and that fact has led to a big question for many employees: how much of my private data can my boss access?

In this article, we will look at four tools that a current boss, prospective boss, or hiring manager could be using to learn more about you -- often without your knowledge or consent.
[...] Wearable devices / Pregnancy apps / Email and other communications / Background information [...]
Conclusion
As technology continues to evolve and our employee data becomes tracked, recorded, and cataloged at every turn, it’s important to understand the privacy implications. Between social media and the power of an employer’s reach, bosses and hiring managers can know a lot more about their candidates today than they ever could have learned 10 or 20 years ago.
However, as you strive to strike a balance between work life and personal life, it is crucial to understand where those barriers might be broken down for you by your employer.
Click to expand...

guest · Nov 6, 2019

Is Your Workplace Slack a Surveillance Tool?
November 4, 2019
https://gizmodo.com/is-your-workplace-slack-a-surveillance-tool-1839612815

The truth, though, is that Slack has become as much a tool for corporate surveillance as email had been in the decades that preceded Slack’s 2013 launch. And workers have good reason to avoid discussing anything on the platform they wouldn’t say aloud in an elevator standing next to their boss.

In an article for the Wall Street Journal this summer, reporter Sarah Krouse wrote about the numerous new ways employers are mining internal data to keep tabs on their workers, including text messages and recorded calls on company phones, and yes, even Slack messages. One company mentioned in the piece, Bunch.ai, even markets a tool used to analyze Slack conversations.

Regardless, corporate Slack accounts can allow bosses to view any messages, including those that Slack’s interface convinces workers are confidential.
Click to expand...

Luckily, it’s fairly easy to determine if that’s the case without having to ask your boss directly. Simply type in the following URL and insert your own team name, hit enter, and then click “Retention and Exports”:

https://<your team name goes here>.slack.com/account/workspace-settings
If you’d prefer to keep your workplace conversations private, it’s best to take them elsewhere.
Click to expand...

guest · Dec 9, 2019

If you use your personal phone for work, say goodbye to your privacy
December 9, 2019
https://www.fastcompany.com/9044007...al-phone-for-work-say-goodbye-to-your-privacy

The Bill of Rights covers only what the government can do to you. Unless you work for the government, many of your rights to free speech and freedom from search and seizure stop when you walk in, or log in, to your job.

“If you’re on your employer’s communications equipment, you’ve got virtually no privacy in theory and absolutely none in practice,” says Lew Maltby, head of the National Workrights Institute.
The lack of workplace digital privacy has become a hot topic with the recent firing of four Google employees for what Google says were violations such as unauthorized accessing of company documents and the workers say was retaliation for labor organizing or criticizing company policies.

Various companies make MDM applications with varying levels of monitoring capabilities.
There are many legitimate reasons why a company might want to use this tech [...] But they can also spy on you, or wipe out all your data—whether deliberately or negligently.
Click to expand...

guest · Feb 20, 2020

Barclays scraps ‘Big Brother’ spyware which tracks employees
February 20, 2020
https://www.thecourier.co.uk/news/u...s-big-brother-spyware-which-tracks-employees/

The bank has now stopped its use of the spyware following criticism from HR experts and privacy campaigners.
Barclays introduced the technology during a pilot scheme last week, which was first reported by City AM.

The software, called Sapience, monitors workers’ productivity and claims to create “unprecedented transparency” within companies.

Monitoring desktops, timing loo breaks and warning staff about "unaccounted activity" when they go for a drink of water.
This isn't "work yoga", it's Dystopian Big Brother tactics that show a total disregard for hardworking staff
Shame on you @Barclays https://t.co/d7UmaIR38G — TradesUnionCongress (@The_TUC) February 20, 2020
A Barclays spokesman said: “We always intended to listen to colleague feedback as part of this limited pilot which was intended to tackle issues such as individual over-working as well as raise general productivity.
“In response to that colleague feedback we have taken steps to ensure that no individual data is visible to managers.”
Click to expand...

guest · Mar 1, 2020

Tech Companies Are Helping Bosses Monitor Everything You Do at Work
We need to fight back and regain our autonomy at work
March 1, 2020
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/03/tech-companies-bosses-monitoring-surveillance-workers-technology

Recently, Barclays walked back a new spyware program that it had begun piloting on its workers after they complained about its “Big Brother” tactics.
Barclays’s promise to collect only anonymized, aggregated employee data in the future is a win for its employees, but the case is just the latest example of how digital tech advances are being used to perpetuate modern-day Taylorism.

Twenty-first-century scientific managers promise complete control over digital workspaces. Computers can be loaded up with hidden software designed to monitor workers’ application, web, and network usage. Live feeds, timed screenshots, and screen capture with playback are bundled with advanced keystroke logging (which capture everything from IM chats to passwords) and keyword alerts to quickly flag “deviant” behavior.

Office jobs are already ripe for surveillance, but digital advances over the past decade have given bosses unprecedented scope to track and control the productivity of workers in all sectors.
Many workers aren’t even aware that they are being monitored because their bosses aren’t legally required to tell them.
Click to expand...

Microchips, mobile spyware, and perpetual, individualized monitoring are all part of capital’s fantasy of twenty-first-century scientific management — a future in which our movements, impulses, and rhythms are perfectly adapted to the needs of profit-making.
Click to expand...

guest · Aug 8, 2020

mood said: ↑

Barclays scraps ‘Big Brother’ spyware which tracks employees
February 20, 2020
https://www.thecourier.co.uk/news/u...s-big-brother-spyware-which-tracks-employees/
Click to expand...

Barclays being probed by UK privacy watchdog on accusations of spying on staff
August 9, 2020
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...-accusations-of-spying-on-staff-idUSKCN25500P

Barclays Plc (BARC.L) is being probed by the United Kingdom’s privacy watchdog, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), over allegations that the British bank spied on its staff, the agency said on Sunday.

Earlier this year, Barclays said it was changing a system that the bank was piloting, which tracked how employees spent their time at work, after critical media reports accused the bank of spying on its staff.
The ICO said on Sunday a formal probe was ongoing but it could not say when the investigation would conclude.

“People expect that they can keep their personal lives private and that they are also entitled to a degree of privacy in the workplace,” an ICO spokesman said.
Click to expand...

Late in February, Barclays said it was changing how it used the Sapience software so it would now track only anonymised data, in response to staff feedback that the system was intrusive.
Such systems are becoming increasingly common among banks and other financial firms, which use voice recognition and other behaviour-tracking tools to watch for unusual behaviour that could indicate misconduct.
Click to expand...

guest · Oct 1, 2020

Germany fines H&M €35 million for worker 'surveillance'
October 1, 2020
https://www.thelocal.de/20201001/germany-fines-hm-35-mn-euros-for-worker-surveillance

The amount is the highest fine for such breaches in Germany since its latest data-protection legislation came into force two years ago, a spokesman for Germany's watchdog for the issue told AFP, in a country known for jealously guarding the right to privacy.

Company bosses at the group's service centre in Nuremberg were found to have delved too deeply into the private lives of their employees, acquiring information "ranging from rather harmless details to family problems and religious beliefs".
Detailed "symptoms of illness and diagnoses" were also recorded and stored digitally, the authorities said in a statement.

"The present case documents a serious disregard for employee data protection at the H&M site in Nuremberg," said Johannes Caspar, the Commissioner for Data Protection in Hamburg, where H&M's German arm is based.
Click to expand...

The data collection had been ongoing since at least 2014, and only became known when the information became accessible company-wide for a few hours in October 2019 due to a computing error.
H&M said they would "carefully examine the decision", adding that "practices in the processing of employee data in Nuremberg were incompatible with H&M's policies and instructions."

The fine is one of the highest in Europe linked to the European Union's data protection rules, known as GDPR.
Click to expand...

guest · Nov 28, 2020

Microsoft's Creepy New 'Productivity Score' Gamifies Workplace Surveillance
November 26, 2020
https://gizmodo.com/microsofts-creepy-new-productivity-score-gamifies-workp-1845763063

Microsoft rolled out its new “Productivity Score” feature this month, which lets bosses track how their employees use Microsoft’s suite of tools. If that sounds like an Orwellian nightmare in the making to you, you’re not alone—privacy experts are criticizing the company for essentially gamifying workplace surveillance.

When Microsoft first announced the feature in October, the company billed it as a way to provide “insights that transform how work gets done” to employers. To do this, the tool gathers data on each employee’s behavior across 73 metrics and presents a handy-dandy breakdown to their bosses at the end of each month, Forbes reports.
Click to expand...

These metrics include how often workers turn their cameras on during virtual meetings, how frequently they send emails (and how many contain @ mentions), whether they regularly contribute to shared documents or group chats, and the number of days they used Microsoft’s tools such as Word, Excel, Skype, Outlook, or Teams in the last month, just to name a few.
Click to expand...

Microsoft 365's corporate VP Jared Spataro specified in a blog post that the feature, which debuted to little fanfare on Nov. 17, is “not a work monitoring tool” and that Microsoft has incorporated several security measures to demonstrate its commitment to privacy.

Privacy experts are understandably p[***] to see blatant workplace surveillance repackaged as a productivity optimization tool, and one with a cutesy game-themed “score” design no less.
Click to expand...

Microsoft: Power your digital transformation with insights from Microsoft Productivity Score

As leaders, it’s our job to make sure people have the tools they need to do their best work.
Until now, it’s been difficult for leaders to get insight into these habits and understand how to help people make the most of the technology they invest in.

Today, with the announcement of the general availability of Microsoft Productivity Score, we take an important step forward. Let’s take a look at how Productivity Score can help your people succeed today and in the future.
Commitment to privacy
For example, to help maintain privacy and trust, the user data provided in Productivity Score is aggregated over a 28-day period. We also give you controls so you can anonymize the user info or even remove it. You can learn more on the documentation page.
Click to expand...

guest · Dec 1, 2020

mood said: ↑

Microsoft's Creepy New 'Productivity Score' Gamifies Workplace Surveillance November 26, 2020

Microsoft: Power your digital transformation with insights from Microsoft Productivity Score
Click to expand...

Microsoft is changing its Productivity Score in response to privacy concerns
December 1, 2020
https://www.neowin.net/news/microso...ctivity-score-in-response-to-privacy-concerns

Microsoft first announced its Productivity Score tool back in April, but recently, it's come under fire by some concerned about the privacy aspects of it. According to Wolfie Christl, it can be used as a "full-fledged workplace surveillance tool", and now, Microsoft has responded.

In a blog post titled Our commitment to Privacy in Microsoft Productivity Score that was penned by Microsoft 365 CVP Jared Spataro, some new features were announced, or rather, some features are being removed.
In fact, Microsoft says that Productivity Score was never meant to be an actual productivity score for individual users, despite that being what it was.
Click to expand...

Microsoft: Our commitment to privacy in Microsoft Productivity Score

Over the last week, there’s been a lot of conversation about Microsoft Productivity Score—a tool that helps organizations measure and manage the adoption of Microsoft 365. We’ve heard the feedback, and today we’re responding by making changes to the product to further bolster privacy for customers. In this post, I’ll outline the changes we’re making to protect individual privacy, while still giving organizations the data-driven insights they need to manage their digital transformation.
Click to expand...

guest · Aug 12, 2021

Amazon to Monitor Customer Service Workers’ Keyboard and Mouse Strokes
August 12, 2021
https://www.vice.com/en/article/dyvejq/amazon-monitor-employees-keyboard-mouse

Amazon plans to monitor the keyboard strokes and mouse movements of customer service employees in an attempt to stop rogue workers, imposters, or hackers accessing customers' data, according to a confidential Amazon document obtained by Motherboard. The document also includes several concrete instances where people managed to steal Amazon customer data.

Instead, the system generates a profile based on the employee's natural keyboard and mouse movements, and then continuously verifies whether it seems the same person is in control of the worker's account to catch hackers or imposters who may then steal data.

"We are considering an option that will include capturing all keystrokes and with this functionality turned on, we may not be able to deploy the off-the-shelf solution," the document reads.
Click to expand...

Security, finance, legal, and other Amazon teams reached a consensus on using a product from a cybersecurity company called BehavioSec, the document reads.

"Behavioral biometrics uses characteristics of human behavior to authenticate individuals based on how they digitally engage their devices and apps, such as mouse movements, typing rhythm, touch and swipe gestures, or how they hold their device," BehavioSec's website reads.
Buying BehavioSec software for around 750,000 users, at which point licensing the software will become cost effective, will cost $1,360,000, the document says. BehavioSec did not respond to a request for comment.
Click to expand...

guest · Aug 19, 2021

Most employee monitoring tools are needlessly invasive, study finds
August 18, 2021
https://www.fastcompany.com/90666970/employee-surveillance-monitoring-tools-study

If an employer installs time- or attendance-tracking software on your computer, that software can probably spy on you in lots of other ways as well.

A new study by the resume-help site StandOut CV compared the data collection features in 32 of the most popular employee monitoring tools. The group found that 75% of these tools can record employees’ screens and monitor which apps or websites they’re using, while 59% can monitor keyboard and mouse movements. Nearly half of those tools can run in a stealth mode, allowing employers to deploy the software on company-owned computers without workers’ knowledge.
Click to expand...

StandOut CV found that 22% of those programs can access a device’s camera to take pictures of their workers, 19% support GPS tracking, and 9% can listen in on employees through their computers’ microphones.
Whether those tactics do more good than harm is up for debate.

Research has shown that monitoring can work well if employers are transparent about why they’re doing it, and if employees feel it will improve their work.
Conversely, invasive monitoring can lead to tension and burnout, and it can erode workers’ motivations to put in extra effort for a company. Monitoring software can also create privacy issues if employers slurp up personal data, and it can be a form of discrimination if managers use it to target specific workers.
Click to expand...

StandOut CV: Employee monitoring study

How much does your boss know about you?
In 2018, the Gartner Report estimated that 80% of large companies will be monitoring their employees by 2020, using a range of employee monitoring tools and data collectors to track performance and secure property.
However, with the global pandemic seeing many teams work from home, a separate 2020 report found that 1 in 5 companies have or intend to engage in using a form of employee monitoring tool or software.

To help shed a light on the tools that could be on your work computer, we’ve analysed 32 of the most used and recognised employee monitoring tools to reveal what and how they collect data.
Click to expand...

stapp · Oct 2, 2021

IKEA: Cameras were hidden in the ceiling above warehouse toilets for 'health and safety'

IKEA has removed hidden security cameras from its warehouse in Peterborough, England, after an employee spotted one in the ceiling void while using the toilet.
Click to expand...

https://www.theregister.com/2021/10/01/ikea_spycam_scandal/

guest · Nov 5, 2021

Employee surveillance is on the rise. Privacy campaigners are worried for us all
More companies are turning to remote monitoring tools
November 5, 2021
https://www.zdnet.com/article/emplo...e-privacy-campaigners-are-worried-for-us-all/

A UK trade union is calling for the introduction of measures to protect employees from "intrusive monitoring" after polling suggested that one in three UK workers are being monitored by their employer -- including in their own homes.

Prospect, a 150,000-member trade union for professionals working in technology, engineering, management, civil service and various other industries, said it was concerned that the increase in organizations using surveillance technologies to monitor workers was going unchecked and without the consent of employees.
Click to expand...

According to data from a poll of more than 2,400 UK workers conducted by Opinium, 32% are now being monitored in some form by their employers -- up from 24% in April 2021.
The use of camera technology to surveil people working from home has also doubled, the data suggested: 13% of home-workers currently being monitored by cameras compared to 5% six months ago.

"We think that we need to upgrade the law to protect the privacy of workers and set reasonable limits on the use of this snooping technology, and the public overwhelmingly agree with us."
Click to expand...

IS BIG BROTHER WATCHING YOU?
The overnight introduction of remote working in early 2020 created both technical and managerial challenges for businesses, who suddenly found themselves having to effectively coordinate teams from a distance.

As some companies looked to technical solutions to help them maintain productivity, remote monitoring services – which offer a variety of software-based tools allowing administrators to track employees' online activity -- have seen an uptick in adoption.

"We need to challenge the rise of creepy tech and ensure that digital technology works for us, not the other way around."
Click to expand...

guest · Nov 13, 2021

Apple to pay $30M to retail employees for off-the-clock bag, device searches
November 13, 2021
https://appleinsider.com/articles/2...ployees-for-off-the-clock-bag-device-searches

Apple has offered to pay $30 million in a settlement with retail employees who claimed they were subject to routine, off-the-clock searches of their bags before leaving work.

Lawyers for the Apple staffers urged the court to approve the $29.9 million settlement, calling it a "significant, non-reversionary settlement reached after nearly eight years of hard-fought litigation," Courthouse News reported Friday.
The lawsuit originated in 2013, when a class of employees sued Apple, arguing that they should be paid for the time spent undergoing security checks of their bags and devices.
Click to expand...

The court found that Apple wielded control over employees, forcing them to find a manager or security guard before they could leave a retail store for breaks or shift ends.

Retail workers had to open compartments in their bags and follow the commands of searches. They also had to allow their Apple products to be inspected and verified during the searches.
Employees in the class of nearly 12,000 current and former Apple Store staffers in California can stand to receive a maximum payment of about $1,200, if the settlement is approved.
Click to expand...

Log in or Sign up

On Surveillance in the Workplace

guest Guest

mirimir Registered Member

guest Guest

guest Guest

guest Guest

guest Guest

guest Guest

guest Guest

guest Guest

guest Guest

guest Guest

guest Guest

guest Guest

guest Guest

guest Guest

guest Guest

guest Guest

stapp Global Moderator

guest Guest

guest Guest

Log in or Sign up

On Surveillance in the Workplace

guest Guest

mirimir Registered Member

guest Guest

guest Guest

guest Guest

guest Guest

guest Guest

guest Guest

guest Guest

guest Guest

guest Guest

guest Guest

guest Guest

guest Guest

guest Guest

guest Guest

guest Guest

stapp Global Moderator

guest Guest

guest Guest

Useful Searches