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| Company using surveillance on remote employees |
If you are a remote worker, there are some questions you may ask yourself:
"Does my company spy on remote employees with home office surveillance?"
"Does my company spy on me while I am working remotely?"
"Is my company spying on its remote workers using the webcam?"
These are all valid questions a remote worker should consider.
The Pandemic has shifted more Office Workers to Remote Workers
Thanks to the pandemic, we now live in a world where many of us are now working remotely from home or now working a hybrid work schedule, with some days in the office, and other days working from home. Some companies are now willing to hire a person after doing a webcam interview, and will ship a desktop or laptop computer straight to their new employee's address!
Do employers spy on their employees with special software, now dubbed "tattleware?" The answer is: Yes.
Some companies do spy on their employees working remotely from home, to monitor performance.
This type of home office surveillance is not okay with everyone.
A Company was Spying on a Remote Employee without his Permission
The Guardian published an article about a man hired to work for a company in their Digital Marketing department. He was working for home, and after working for them for three weeks, he discovered that the company installed software called Sneek on his company-owned computer. The company used this software to take photos or video clips from the laptop camera on that computer, at their discretion to monitor his performance. The employee found this to be an invasion of his privacy, so he quit. He said, "I signed up to manage their digital marketing...not to livestream my living room."
Source: The Guardian
Is Sneek Software Used to Spy on Remote Workers, or Stay Connected to Teams?
Sneek software co-founder Del Currie says: "We know lots of people will find it an invasion of privacy, we 100% get that, and it's not the solution for those folks...but there's also lot's of teams out there who are good friends and want to stay connected when they're working together."
Sneek is just one example of remote surveillance software companies are using to monitor their remote employees on company-provided desktop and laptop computers.
Source: The Guardian
Why can Remote Workers not be Trusted to Work from Home?
The Washington Post reported that thousands of companies now use monitoring software to record employees' Web browsing and active work hours, dispatching the kinds of tools built for corporate offices into workers' phones, computers and homes. But they have also sought to watch over the workers themselves, mandating always-on webcam rules..."
Source: The Washington Post
Other Ways Employers Monitor Remote Workers on Desktop and Laptop Computers
There are other ways employers can monitor remote workers, in addition to or instead of using webcam surveillance. These other methods include:
- An Archive of all web pages viewed on desktop and laptop computers
- Logging keystrokes on employee's desktop and laptop computers
- Monitoring all open applications on an employee's desktop and laptop computer
- Screen captures of the desktop and laptops on the network
Quick statistics:
American Management Association did a survey of companies, and found the following:
- 48% of participating companies use video surveillance to prevent sabotage, violence, and theft.
- Only 7% of these companies use video surveillance monitoring to track on-the-job work performance.
What Laws Protect Remote Employees from Surveillance Software?
The Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) allows for employers to monitor business-related activities on the company-owned property, but requires the employer to inform the employee of their recording activity.
A company will also typically disclose their surveillance of employees in their Employee Handbook or in disclosures that employees agree to and sign at the initial hire date. This includes their computer and internet policy, and how they monitor their employees using company property (i.e. desktop and laptop computers).
Suggestion for Remote Employees Working from Home with a Webcam
If you take a company-owned computer home, be aware that your employer might be monitoring you. As a suggestion, and unless your company specifically says otherwise, you can take a piece of tape, and tape something like a piece of paper, or use non-transparent electrical tape, and obstruct the view from your front-facing camera. If your employer has a problem with this, they will let you know, but this will ensure that you are not being recorded without your knowledge. Be sure to be careful not to cause damage to the company laptop or webcam while applying the tape. This tape will have to be removed if you have a meeting.
If your company monitors its employees without informing you, would you feel that it is an invasion of your privacy?
