\n<\/p>\n
A third of UK employers are using \u201cbossware\u201d technology to track workers\u2019 activity with the most common methods including monitoring emails and web browsing.<\/p>\n
Private companies are most likely to deploy in-work surveillance and one in seven employers are recording or reviewing screen activity, according to a UK-wide survey that estimates the extent of office snooping.<\/p>\n
The findings, shared with the Guardian by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), are based on responses from hundreds of UK managers and suggest there has been a recent growth in computerised work surveillance.<\/p>\n
In 2023, less than a fifth of people thought they were being monitored by an employer, the Information Commissioner\u2019s Office (ICO) found. The finding that about a third of managers report their organisations are monitoring workers\u2019 online activities on employer-owned devices is probably an underestimate, as roughly the same proportion said they don\u2019t know what tracking their organisations do.<\/p>\n
Many monitoring systems are aimed at preventing insider threats and safeguarding sensitive information as well as detecting productivity dips. But the trend appears to be causing unease. A large minority of managers are opposed to the practice, saying it undermines trust with staff and invades their personal privacy, the CMI found.<\/p>\n
One manager at an insurance company, which is developing AI systems to monitor staff screen activity to track performance, said it was \u201cunsettling\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo they not trust their employees to do their jobs and are they looking to replace them with AI?\u201d they said.<\/p>\n
One provider of employee monitoring offers to report on workers\u2019 \u201cidle time\u201d, \u201cemployee productivity tracking\u201d and use of unapproved AI or social media as well as \u201creal-time insights into employee behaviour, including screenshots, screen recordings, keystrokes, and app usage\u201d.<\/p>\n
In response to the findings, the ICO said bosses \u201cmust make their employees aware of the nature, extent and reasons for monitoring\u201d, and said excessive monitoring \u201ccan undermine people\u2019s privacy especially if they are working from home\u201d. It warned it will \u201ctake action if necessary\u201d.<\/p>\n
Last year, the ICO stopped the outsourcing company Serco from using facial recognition technology and fingerprint scanning to monitor the attendance of staff at a chain of leisure centres.<\/p>\n
Monitoring often amounts to checks that inappropriate content is not being accessed, the CMI said. But it warned, \u201cthere\u2019s a longer-term impact if you are feeling this is big brother-like and you are being watched\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it is being used, it is incredibly important employers are open, otherwise that\u2019s going to cause significant problems in terms of data privacy and protection,\u201d said Petra Wilton, CMI director of policy and external affairs.<\/p>\n
Other recent examples of surveillance technology at work include plans by HSBC to install a large numbers of security cameras \u2013 1,754 by one estimate \u2013 and biometric readers which use handprints as one way to access areas in its new London headquarters.<\/p>\n
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Sign up to Business Today<\/span><\/p>\n Get set for the working day \u2013 we’ll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.<\/span><\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n The accountancy firm PwC recently introduced a \u201ctraffic light\u201d system using data from pass swipes and wifi connections to check staff are meeting a mandate to attend the office at least three days a week. A spokesperson for PwC said this was \u201caccepted by the vast majority of our people\u201d.<\/p>\n A former senior worker at a public transport authority, who asked not to be named, called the monitoring they faced, including of their online diary, \u201cintrusive and downright harassment\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIt started with surveillance and it ended with me leaving because I was so infuriated,\u201d they said. One in six managers also told the CMI researchers they would consider looking for a new job if their organisation started monitoring employees\u2019 online activities on work devices.<\/p>\n Among managers who knew their organisations carried out surveillance, 35% were monitoring emails. Overall, tracking log in and log off times and system access were the most popular form of surveillance.<\/p>\n The study found that 53% of managers supported monitoring of employees\u2019 online activities on employer-owned devices, but 42% opposed it, mostly because it undermines trust but also because they believe it does not improve performance and can be misused or lead to unfair judgments or disciplinary actions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A third of UK employers are using \u201cbossware\u201d technology to track workers\u2019 activity with the most common methods including monitoring emails and web browsing. Private companies are most likely to deploy in-work surveillance and one in seven employers are recording or reviewing screen activity, according to a UK-wide survey that estimates the extent of office<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21251,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[2215,13043,661,9641,4493,572,568,1438],"class_list":{"0":"post-21250","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-activity","9":"tag-bossware","10":"tag-firms","11":"tag-monitor","12":"tag-privacy","13":"tag-reveals","14":"tag-survey","15":"tag-workers"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21250\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}