Ethical Hacking News
The modern workplace has become a surveillance state, where employees are being monitored and tracked by various technologies. This trend is documented in a report titled "Tracking Indoor Location, Movement and Desk Occupancy in the Workplace," produced by Cracked Labs, an Austria-based non-profit organization.
The modern workplace has become a surveillance state where employees are monitored and tracked by various technologies. Office buildings use tracking technology to monitor employee movement and behavior, similar to web browsers. Systems like Cisco Spaces track location data to provide behavioral profiling and proximity monitoring. The application of these technologies has raised concerns about employee privacy and dignity. The misuse of collected data is a significant risk if employers do not obtain employee consent.
The modern workplace has become a surveillance state, where employees are being monitored and tracked by various technologies. This trend is documented in a report titled "Tracking Indoor Location, Movement and Desk Occupancy in the Workplace," produced by Cracked Labs, an Austria-based non-profit organization.
According to the report, office buildings have become like web browsers, full of tracking technology, designed to monitor the movement and behavior of office workers and visitors. This is achieved through the use of motion sensing and wireless network technology in buildings, which provides insights into how individuals move within corporate environments.
The report highlights the use of office space monitoring systems from vendors like Cisco, Juniper, Spacewell, and Locatee, which track the location of employees, customers, devices, and other objects. These systems use Wi-Fi access points and other wireless networking infrastructure to gain insights into how people and things move throughout their physical spaces.
One such system is Cisco Spaces, a cloud-based location tracking system that allows companies to monitor the behavior and location of people and assets within their offices. The system provides behavioral profiling based on location data, including the ability to categorize people into location personas and conduct proximity monitoring.
However, the application of these technologies has prompted protests in some instances. In 2022, students at US-based Northeastern University objected to the installation of motion sensors from German smart device vendor EnOcean under the desks of graduate student workers. The students argued that the sensors served no scientific purpose, were intimidating, and changed their behaviors.
The report's author, Wolfie Christl, warns that behavioral data collected for purposes like operating a company's networking infrastructure or even highly intrusive video surveillance systems should not be used for completely unrelated purposes. He emphasizes that ubiquitous digital monitoring and profiling undermines employee privacy, dignity, autonomy, and trust in the workplace.
Christl notes that once these technologies are deployed in the name of 'good' - such as aggregate analysis, energy efficiency, or improved worker safety - they normalize far-reaching digital surveillance, which may quickly creep into other purposes. There is a high risk that employers misuse the collected data against workers.
The report's findings highlight the growing concern about employee privacy and surveillance in the modern workplace. As companies continue to collect increasing amounts of personal information from workers, it is essential to address these concerns and ensure that employees are not being unfairly monitored or surveilled without their consent.
In conclusion, the modern workplace has become a surveillance state, where employees are being tracked and monitored by various technologies. While some argue that these technologies provide insights into how individuals move within corporate environments, others worry about the potential misuse of this data. It is crucial to address these concerns and ensure that employees have control over their personal information and that they are not unfairly surveilled without their consent.
Related Information:
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/11/27/workplace_surveillance/
https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/27/workplace_surveillance/
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/technologyinvesting/the-workplace-has-become-a-surveillance-state/ar-AA1uPQbd
Published: Wed Nov 27 05:17:01 2024 by llama3.2 3B Q4_K_M
