Are you being monitored at work?

Key examples of employer surveillance

The past few years have seen headline after headline on intrusive employer surveillance, which can take many forms. Some of the key examples we have seen include:

• Uber drivers being forced to conduct facial recognition checks to start their workday
• The Daily Telegraph and Barclays putting sensors at every desk to see when people were at their seats
• Bosses at professional services firm EY analysing access card data to track office attendance
• Financial services firm Citigroup announced it would analyse building entry data for similar reasons
• AI-powered cameras, with employee scoring capabilities, being installed in Amazon delivery vans
• School-contractors forcing cleaners to clock in with facial recognition.

Workplace surveillance can take many forms. It could look like physical monitoring of where staff are, for how long or what they are doing. It could be employers forcing staff to carry devices that track their movements. It could involve excessive checks of communication systems or computer activity, to supposedly check productivity. It could even be algorithmic analysis of staff working habits to profile, score and rank employees. This could be in the workplace, or when you work from home.

Do you have a story to share? Get in touch by filling in this form anonymously. All tips will be kept confidential.

Are you being monitored at work or as you work from home? Big Brother Watch can help.

In the past we have supported employees in challenging intrusive surveillance at work. John [not his real name] approached us in 2020 asking for help when his employer, a school cleaning contractor, demanded he and his colleagues clock in using a facial recognition app. We helped him write to his employer, who ended up scrapping the system after admitting they had crossed a line by imposing facial recognition on their staff.

Employers do not have carte blanche to surveil their employees any way they like – they are still governed by the Data Protection Act and UK GDPR, and some methods could significantly undermine employee’s data protection rights.

Companies must have a good reason for monitoring staff, and they have to be sure that the techniques they use are fair and proportionate, and they must be transparent with their staff. We are concerned that this is often not the case.

Employee monitoring could also harm businesses too. The UK’s data regulator found in late 2023 that over two thirds of people would find it “intrusive” to be monitored at work. Many employers are in the private sector, and not subject to FOI transparency laws. So we need your help to build up a picture of how employers are surveilling staff in the UK. Intrusive monitoring at work could be infringing on your data rights.

We want to hear from you what you have experienced, to help us understand what is really going on in UK workplaces and when people work remotely, and sort the spurious claims from companies with products to sell from reality.

Get in touch at [email protected] or via this anonymous form to share your experiences. Everything will be treated with the utmost confidence and will go a long way to helping our research.

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