A third of UK firms using ‘bossware’ to monitor workers’ activity, survey reveals | Privacy

One -third of the UK employers uses the “Bossware” technology to monitor the effectiveness of workers in the most common methods, including E -mail monitoring and web scanning.

According to a UK -wide survey, private companies are likely to use internal surveillance, and one of the seven employers records or reviews the screen activity.

The findings shared with Guardian by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) are based on the responses of hundreds of British executives and argue that there is a new growth in computed business survival.

Inside 2023, less than the fifth person The Information Commissioner Office (ICO) thought that they were watched by a employer. The findings of approximately one -third of the managers follow the online activities on the devices owned by employers, as they say that the organizations of the same ratio do not know what to watch, is probably underestimated.

Many monitoring systems aim to prevent internal threats and to protect sensitive information and to determine productivity decreases. However, the tendency seems to cause discomfort. CMI opposes the implementation of a large manager’s minority, and that it weakens confidence with the staff and invaded their personal privacy.

A manager in an insurance company that develops AI systems to monitor the staff screen efficiency to monitor performance, said it is “disturbing ..

“They don’t trust their employees to do their jobs and do they want to change them with AI?” They said.

A provider Employee Monitoring offers Real -time views of workers’ employee -free time ”,“ employee efficiency monitoring ”and unapproved artificial intelligence or social media usage and“ screenshots, screen recordings, key strokes and application use ”.

In response to the findings, ICO said that the bosses should “inform their employees about nature, scope and reasons for monitoring” and excessive monitoring can weaken the privacy of people, especially if they work from home ”. He warned that he will take action if necessary ”.

Last year, ICO stopped the external resource company Serco from using face recognition technology and fingerprint scan to monitor the participation of personnel in an entertainment centers chain.

CMI, monitoring usually checks that inappropriate content is not accessed. However, he warned, “If you think this is like Big Brother, and if you think it’s being watched,” he warned.

CMI Politics and External Affairs Director Petra Wilton said, “If used, incredibly important employers are open, otherwise this will cause significant problems in terms of data confidentiality and protection,” he said.

Among the latest examples of surveillance technology at work HSBC to install a large number of security cameras – Biometric readers who use hand traces as a way to access areas in the new London center.

The accounting company PWC recently introduced a “traffic light” system using the data received from Pass Swipes and WiFi connections to check the personnel. The PWC spokesman said that this was “accepted by the majority of our people”.

A former senior worker in a public transport authority was called monitoring, including the online diary “interventionist and outright harassment”.

“It started with my surveillance and ended with my separation because I was very infuriating, iler they said. One of the six executives told CMI researchers that they would consider looking for a new job if employees start to watch their online activities on their working devices.

35% of the surveillance among the managers who knew their organizations were watching 35%. In general, it was the most popular form of surveillance of logging and logging times and system access.

The study supports the fact that 53% of the managers support the online activities of employees ‘online activities on employers’ online activities, but 42% are against this, because they often weaken the trust, but also believe that performance could not improve and cause unjust judgments or disciplinary procedures.