Microsoft to spy on its own workers
By Leslie Poston
In a move that makes the phrase “having your finger on the pulse of your company” have a whole new meaning, Microsoft has developed a program that would allow them to spy on their own employees. when I say spy, I mean it - from keystrokes to heart rate, this program will monitor all aspects of the person seated at the computer station. I find that incredibly invasive and creepy.
What does the software do, exactly? It allows Microsoft to remotely monitor its employees, checking their competence, physical wellbeing and productivity. Wireless sensors keep an eye on a worker’s heart rate, metabolism, how they move, body temperature, and even facial expression. This harks back to Orwell’s Big Brother, complete with facecrimes, in his book 1984, in my opinion. It would be incredibly invasive.
Microsoft filed the patent for the technology last year, but the filing just went public last month. The application specifics are:
a “unique monitoring system” that could link workers to their computers. Wireless sensors could read “heart rate, galvanic skin response, EMG, brain signals, respiration rate, body temperature, movement facial movements, facial expressions and blood pressure”, the application states.
The system could also “automatically detect frustration or stress in the user” and “offer and provide assistance accordingly”.
This system is a huge invasion of privacy. It raises issues of separation of work and personal life that no one thought they would have to contemplate before.
The Information Commissioner’s Office said: “Imposing this level of intrusion on employees could only be justified in exceptional circumstances.”
Hugh Tomlinson, QC, an expert on data protection law at Matrix Chambers, told The Times: “This system involves intrusion into every single aspect of the lives of the employees. It raises very serious privacy issues.”
What do you think about this potential for invasion of your privacy? Would it affect how you thought about your job? Would it prevent you from applying to a company who used it? Do you think the technology will leak into the public sector, used in controlling the public or fighting crime? I certainly think so.
Related:
Entry was posted
on Friday, January 18th, 2008 at 11:30 am
under 
Print This Post
Read more entries by Leslie Poston.
Stumble It!
January 18th, 2008
I think this is really bad , this will make the employees conscious and can effect the productivity ..no freedom for employees?
January 19th, 2008
I agree it is bad - there are ramifications in and out of the workplace.
April 2nd, 2008
It’s been said a thousand times before: —-ing Microsoft.