Are YOU Being Watched at Work?

In the golden days when pop music videos ruled MTV in the 1980s, there was a video by an artist called Rockwell titled, “Somebody’s Watching Me,” dealing with the paranoia of constantly being watched. While the video was dates back from a time before the Internet, smartphones, and the other digital pleasures we take for granted, Rockwell may have unknowingly clued us onto a disturbing trend four decades later.

While there has long been the notion that Big Brother is watching, it turns out that brother may be your employer, concludes a recent survey on the site Secure Data Recovery of over roughly 2,000 workers in the U.S. and U.K.

According to the survey’s findings, 37.5% of U.K workers and 39.3%  of U.S. workers think their work is being monitored daily. The survey said the main methods used are e-mail (50.9% U.K. and 49.6% U.S.), time and productivity (41.8% U.K. and 44.7% U.S.), desktop and app monitoring (24.3% U.K. and 26.9% U.S.), and cameras and guards (23.5% U.K and 26.9% U.S.). Other methods used include calls and audio recording, location and movement, network and data, biometric and access, web and social media, and printing and file transfers.

What is clear from the study is that in a digital age, employers that used surveillance tended to use digital means, rather physical means such as cameras. Digital surveillance might be considered more effective given the rise in remote work, particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Related:Surveillance Companies Eyed by US Government

Do You Think You’re Being Watched?

The survey found that 47% in the U.S. think bosses are transparent about surveillance, but only 40% think they know all the ways they are surveilled. The survey also suggests that true surveillance levels in the U.S. might also be higher than reported. Under federal legislation, bosses in most of the U.S. have no legal requirement to disclose to their workers that they are being monitored. But the U.K. is different as bosses must tell workers how they are being surveilled and what is being tracked or collected.

Surveillance Not Healthy

Regardless of methods or transparency, the notion of constantly monitoring workers’ actions is disconcerting. Not surprisingly, 59% of American workers say work surveillance is unethical. Just under half the respondents in both countries compared work surveillance to an invasion of privacy. Moreover, close to half the respondents felt that active surveillance makes them feel untrusted.

On top of this, surveillance may have lasting effects on job satisfaction and productivity. In the U.S., about 75% of workers say surveillance decreases job satisfaction & only 9% are more productive under surveillance. In total, 40% said workplace surveillance does not affect how much work they complete.

Related:Identifying the Privacy & Ethical Pitfalls in Connected Medical Devices

Workers Fight Back

Not surprisingly, the survey says workers have found ways to avoid surveillance. In the U.K., 29.4% of workers try to circumvent surveillance, while 26.1% of U.S. workers do. The methods most commonly deployed include avoiding discussing certain topics at work, using theatrics to appear busy, and staging workspaces to seem busy.