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Re:The Rise of Workplace Surveillance by gambiting on Monday November 06, 2017 @09:53AM (#15635833)
Like, I'm ok with my employer reading my work emails - that's obviously in my contract. But there's something really creepy about automated software that automatically flags messages/actions for review because they are "suspicious". Same with using my webcam to take pictures of me while I work.
Re:The Rise of Workplace Surveillance by Bartweiss on Monday November 06, 2017 @10:47AM (#15636256)
There's a common pattern of suggesting that if an employer (or state, or university, or...) can access data, there's no problem when they do. I think it's a pretty serious error.

Broadly, automated surveillance creates illusory offenses. It raises issues based on some imperfect set of rules, and does so independent of any report of harm. (Add to that the likelihood of unethical flagging - which happened right in the article!)

And that creates an obligation to act for employers. Ignoring alerts, no matter how silly, is the sort of thing that might get cited as negligence when a real problem does come down the pike. At best, the result is time-consuming investigations of fake issues. At worst, corporate makes a decision that summary firings are an easier bet than proper investigations.

That's not just a hypothetical fear - we already hear about things like Amazon warehouse employees being laid off on vague suspicion of theft, because investigations are harder than replacing staff. Expanding always-active surveillance will predictably hurt innocents who already lack job security.