Employee Espionage Is the New Disturbing Corporate Trend

Employee tracking software is borderline criminal

Image by Author via Canva

Massive companies are deploying invasive employee surveillance software that some have called “workplace tyranny.”

Under the guise of productivity and metrics, they watch your every move, right down to tracking your geolocation and keystrokes. The creators of the apps describe it as “employee monitoring.”

I call it borderline criminal.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to condemn all companies for all employee monitoring. Instead, it is written from an editorial, personal, and cautionary point of view.

What Is Employee Espionage?

Put simply, employee espionage involves a company monitoring its employees.

This intrusive surveillance is typically operationalized as video monitoring, audio recording, and/or keystroke tracking software.

What this means is that a company can access your webcam, view your internet history, and even record every time you click one of the keys on your keyboard.

There are real legal cases where companies fired employees after snooping on their whereabouts during off-hours (a time when it’s none of the company’s business what you do and where you go).

One construction site actually deployed unauthorized drones to secretly spy on workers.

Some of these companies even ask employees to sign documents that allow the employers to record audio and video of anyone and anything in the background, including family members and kids.

I don’t know about you, but I find it a little creepy that some stranger can remotely view and record my children.

No, thanks, boss.

Here’s my 2-week notice, company equipment, and a restraining order.

What They Track

What are some examples of employee surveillance?

Some examples of employee surveillance include:

• Monitoring your emails
• Seeing your social media posts
• Recording how many online…