Remote "spying" apps: ​what happens to those who work at home

If the risk of find the police at home for now it is avoided, it could now be the employer who enters the house.

Yes, because with the new surge in infections, the use of the smart working, in addition to being highly recommended in the new Dpcmremains the preferred option for many Italian companies. Flexible hours, the possibility of carrying out one's duties from the sofa at home, avoiding inconvenient early risers and dangerous gatherings on public transport to reach one's workplace. Kitchen, bedroom, living room, bathroom: there's no difference, any space can fit. All you need is a PC and an internet connection. In short, a boon for commuters, but also for businesses in terms of reducing management costs.

Smart working would seem like a heavenly solution that can also be extended to the post-Covid era. But smart working also hides a dark side. The 42% of US workers who are working from home are well aware of this. The massive use of remote work – he says Salon – translated into an increase in the measures of digital surveillance by companies. More and more employers are asking their employees to download dedicated apps on laptops and smartphones, to check their daily efficiency. But even in Italy, where the Workers' Statute would prohibit surveillance without the prior consent of the employee, thanks to a legal technicality we are not far off.

Big Brother in a smart version

Web pages visited, emails, file transfers, applications used, even mouse movements and keyboard keystrokes. In the crosshairs of the apps that monitor the worker there is not only his level of productivity. There are also software like TSheets, which once downloaded to the smartphone will allow the employer to geolocate employees at any time. Then there are services — such as Time Doctor — which use the PC's webcam to take pictures every 10 minutes as proof of presence. But there is no limit to smart dystopia. One worker told No what if he sits idle for a few minutes, goes to the bathroom or kitchen. A popup appears saying, "You have 60 seconds to start working again or we'll pause your time." InterGuard too, he reports Washington Post, it is certainly no less disturbing. The app, secretly installed on employees' computers, creates a minute-by-minute timeline of all the apps and pages visited during the working day, categorizing them as productive or unproductive. Then, InterGuard, diabolical it also ranks workers based on their productivity score.

The dark side of smart working that exploits the Jobs Act

In the US, although workers have begun to complain, the surveillance practice is legal and, not in all states, the company is expected to inform the employee of the monitoring against him. In Italy, the Workers' Statute prohibits company software for checking internet browsing or webcams to understand if the worker is connected to the PC or is doing something else. But according to the Como investigative company Reserve investigations the solution is the Jobs Act (Legislative Decree No. 151/2015) to allow the 007s a margin of intervention in the hunt for smart working "sneaky". In fact, iMonitoring can be aimed at company smartphones and PCs on which the worker cannot have privacy claims given the unauthorized use for personal purposes. The usefulness of investigative companies does not end with agile sofa work. "After the lockdown with the reopening of the activities - explains Davide Centurioni of Emissarius Private Investigations - digital surveillance systems are applied to the workplace“. Webcam to monitor that employees are properly distanced, sanitized and, of course, equipped with masks. More than the beginning of the new era of ease applied to work, it seems like the dawn of a nightmare with no way out. A sort of new Big Brother where every remnant of privacy is shattered.

Related news: TSheets

Time Doctor

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