Bosses turn to ‘tattleware’ to keep tabs on employees working from home | Hacker News Reader

Bosses turn to ‘tattleware’ to keep tabs on employees working from home

theguardian.com

62 pointscyb_25 comments

I would like to just send a big, heart-felt “Fuck you” to anyone out there involved in the construction of such software.

Go for it: https://analogrepublic.com/about

And yet the comment here about the most effective way to combat this is flagged and dead. HN's crowd seems to be largely fine with all of this.

Can you paraphrase it?

Say that tho your politicians! For example in Switzerland it's illegal to have surveillance on your employees.

The more I hear about Switzerland, the more I consider a life there.

To be honest, it's not getting better the party's found out how to influence the "crowd" but still, i think it's ATM the best Country in the world if you have something to provide...let's say being a "good" dev ;) and the countryside is just so much better then let's say "silicon valley"...and let's not talk about cheese dry-meat wine climbing biking trekking skiing and a good education...and many many different cultures 20km (sometimes 500m...yes Wallis i talk to you!) away from each other.

Im thinking of that 90s movie Speed. Where the loop a 1 minute video signal to the bomber, while they escape. I guess its a reality now.

Great article. I did stop reading when I got to the part about how there wasn't a lot of pushback.

Most employees are dependant upon that job to maintain their income. And losing that income creates a big problem.

So there is a strong incentive to accept most things the employer wants to avoid being fired. Including spyware or tattleware or whatever.

Employees know that even though they hate being spied on, raising it as a serious issue risks losing their job. Or, they have heard other employees try and fail to get anywhere against a mandatory policy.

So if it seems to someone like there isn't a lot of pushback, that is a misleading statistic they have gathered.

Somewhere at the end they even added a “contrarian” opinion which basically said that people like being surveilled and more productive when under surveillance…

*head-desk*

Correct me if I'm wrong, but The Guardian is run by the upper class. It would be strange to assume they speak for other classes.

Voyeur laws could mean lots of these bosses could be looking at time. The camera consent might apply to the employee but if they think it is off and others are filmed including children, it is a huge crime.

I’d very surprised enterprise corporate legal departments don’t have that covered.

Ring doorbells record everything, including peering into other homes.

Outrage? People love them.

If they record audio in a two party consent state they are in big trouble. If they film video without the knowledge of the device holder and it captures someone in a state of undress, especially children they are in big trouble.

The company isn't a party to the recording, the device holder, meaning the employee, is unaware of the recording, and none of the other people in the room are. Most of the US requires at least one party consent.

https://recordinglaw.com/united-states-recording-laws/

- Time Doctor, Teramind, and Hubstaff – which, together with ActivTrak, make up the bulk of the market

How do I find out if any of these programs are run on my pc?

I'm getting the impression that the new job I'm starting very soon uses something like this.

Any suggestions on most convenient way to cover up camera when not using it? I've looked at a few "webcam camera slide" products around, but I'm hearing a lot of reports of them cracking the screen of recent Macbook Pros.

post-it note, bookmark size.

Do your work inside a VM. Disable the device whenever you want.

Use the OBS virtual camera to send whatever image you want over.

2021: return of the goatse. Sorry boss, no clue, something must be fucked up on your end?

Small piece of electric tape over the camera.

Today is always a good day for a general strike. Your job needs you more than you need your job. You are the means of production, so reclaim yourself.

As work has been accelerated since the pandemic to be much more remote; affecting nearly every salary range, employee surveillance will be a new form of power and control the ruling class will have over the working class. Consequently this power imbalance will lead to lesser ideal working conditions for the working class like longer hours and lower wages.

I wonder why bosses feel so insecure. Firstly it’s on them, if they feel they’re not productive enough remotely. There are non intrusive ways to ensure things are on track. For many people , it means no more commuting, lesser distractions = increased productivity. On second thoughts are the bosses that feel insecure, or the management because they may become irrelevant? What happened to all the agile methodologies?

When I think about it, the practices detailed in the article may backfire by decreasing productivity. Its too much like a manager standing behind you and judging your every keystroke.

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