Thursday

28th Sep 2023

Boom in software spying on remote workers, MEPs hear

  • Computer-monitoring software is helping firms track remote-working employees (Photo: Tirza van Dijk)
Listen to article

Companies are increasingly using software to spy on employees working remotely, Polish computer forensics analyst Maciej Broniarz told MEPs on Monday (23 January).

"The market for highly intrusive spyware is snowballing," Broniarz warned.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Become an expert on Europe

Get instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

Remote monitoring tools, also known as Bossware, has the potential to breach privacy of unsuspecting employees, he said. He said the issue of such software "may lead to comparable breaches in privacy that are very similar to those for example, Pegasus."

Pegasus was developed by the Israeli NOS group and sold to some governments, including in Europe, to fight terrorism or other serious crimes.

Bu it has also been used against opposition politicians in Poland, journalists in Hungary, and some MEPs.

Meanwhile, Bossware is allowing firms to digitally-track people — by taking screenshots or logging keystrokes without letting employees know.

One study found that the global demand for employee-monitoring software increased by 58 percent March 2020 to September 2022, compared to 2019.

A more recent survey in the US from last September said some 60 percent of companies with employees who work remotely are using monitoring software to track employee activity and productivity.

Another, by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an NGO, says it is important to understand how remote monitoring effects workers' health, safety, livelihood, and collective bargaining rights. It also warned that built-in artificial intelligence biases of remote-monitoring poses additional problems when it comes to gauging productivity.

But issues over privacy and data protection rights remain, said Broniarz.

"It is mainly due to the lack of general supervision and discussion on that issue," he said, noting that internal policies of some companies tend to skip EU data protection rules.

One such case last year led a Dutch court to rule that Chetu, a Florida-based firm, had violated the human rights of a Dutch telemarketer. The Dutch remote employee had circumvented Chetu's webcam worker surveillance by switching it off. They then fired him for it.

The Dutch court, however, citing European Convention of Human Rights, said "video surveillance of an employee in the workplace, be it covert or not, must be considered as a considerable intrusion into the employee's private life."

Magazine

Spyware scandals in Europe are 'much worse than Watergate'

The illicit use of spyware in Europe is worse than the Watergate scandal which brought down US president Richard Nixon — yet EU authorities are ignoring the danger, MEP Sophie in 't Veld tells Wester van Gaal.

Phone spying scandal exposes 'impotent' Europe, says lead MEP

Democracy in Europe is being undermined by alleged government-led spyware on citizens, journalists and politicians, says Dutch liberal MEP Sophie In't Veld, who is lead report writer for a European Parliament probe into the abuse.

Poland's culture of fear after three years of abortion 'ban'

Poland in 2020 imposed a near-total ban on abortion, triggering mass protests — and today the demands for access to safe abortion continue. On International Safe Abortion Day, dozens gathered in Brussels calling for solidarity among member states.

EU Ombudsman warns of 'new normal' of crisis decision-making

Emily O'Reilly cited the post-pandemic recovery funds, the windfall taxes on energy companies, and the joint purchase of vaccines, as procedures which received limited scrutiny from the national parliaments — as a result of emergency decision-making powers that bypassed parliament.

Why Greek state workers are protesting new labour law

Thousands of Greek state workers are protesting against changes to the labour law proposed by the conservative Mitsotakis government. These include a six-day week, working hours of up to 13 hours and 'on-call' contracts.

Opinion

Time for a reset: EU regional funding needs overhauling

Vasco Alves Cordeiro, president of the European Committee of the Regions, is advocating a revamp of the EU's regional policy so that it better supports all regions in addressing major challenges such as the green and digital transitions.

Opinion

How do you make embarrassing EU documents 'disappear'?

The EU Commission's new magic formula for avoiding scrutiny is simple. You declare the documents in question to be "short-lived correspondence for a preliminary exchange of views" and thus exempt them from being logged in the official inventory.

Latest News

  1. Poland's culture of fear after three years of abortion 'ban'
  2. Time for a reset: EU regional funding needs overhauling
  3. Germany tightens police checks on Czech and Polish border
  4. EU Ombudsman warns of 'new normal' of crisis decision-making
  5. How do you make embarrassing EU documents 'disappear'?
  6. Resurgent Fico hopes for Slovak comeback at Saturday's election
  7. EU and US urge Azerbijan to allow aid access to Armenians
  8. EU warns of Russian 'mass manipulation' as elections loom

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. International Medical Devices Regulators Forum (IMDRF)Join regulators, industry & healthcare experts at the 24th IMDRF session, September 25-26, Berlin. Register by 20 Sept to join in person or online.
  2. UNOPSUNOPS begins works under EU-funded project to repair schools in Ukraine
  3. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsGeorgia effectively prevents sanctions evasion against Russia – confirm EU, UK, USA
  4. International Medical Devices Regulators Forum (IMDRF)Join regulators & industry experts at the 24th IMDRF session- Berlin September 25-26. Register early for discounted hotel rates
  5. Nordic Council of MinistersGlobal interest in the new Nordic Nutrition Recommendations – here are the speakers for the launch
  6. Nordic Council of Ministers20 June: Launch of the new Nordic Nutrition Recommendations

Join EUobserver

Support quality EU news

Join us