During the Covid-19 pandemic, as work shifted to working from home, a large number of U.S. employers have ramped up the use of surveillance software to track their employees. Research firm Gartner says 60% of large employers have deployed such monitoring software – that figure doubled during the pandemic – and will likely reach 70% in the coming years.

It’s true: even though we’ve moved to a hybrid model with many workers returning to the office, the various methods of monitoring employees (called “bossware” by some) aren’t going away; it is here to stay and could become much more invasive.

As detailed in the book Your boss is an algorithmAuthors Antonio Aloisi and Valerio de Stefano describe the “expanded management powers” ​​that companies have implemented during the pandemic. This includes adopting more tools, including software and hardware, to track workers’ productivity, daily activities and movements, keystrokes on computers and cell phones, and even their health status.

This may be called “datafication” or “computerization,” according to the book, or “the practice by which every movement, offline or online, is traced, revised, and stored as necessary, for statistical, financial, commercial, and electoral purposes.” “. “

Ironically, experts point out that there isn’t enough data to support the idea that all this data collection and employee monitoring actually increases productivity. But as the use of surveillance technologies continues, workers need to understand how they may be monitored and what, if anything, they can do.

What type of monitoring is carried out?

Using surveillance tools to monitor employees is not new. Many workplaces continue to deploy low-tech tools like security cameras, as well as more intrusive tools, like content filters that flag the content of emails and voicemails or unusual activity on computers and professional devices. The maxim in the workplace has long been that if you are in the office and/or using office phones or laptops, you should never assume that any activity or conversation you are having is private.

But the new generation of tools goes beyond this type of surveillance to include monitoring via wearable devices, office furniture, cameras that track body and eye movements, AI-based software that can automatically hire and assign work tasks and reprimands, and even biometrics. collection via health applications or electronic chips implanted in the bodies of employees.