Employee monitoring tools more invasive than ever

A new "bossware" study reveals millions of US employers are using invasive digital tracking tools to monitor workers at an alarming rate – and the trend will continue to rise through 2025.

From keystrokes and screenshots to audio recordings and GPS location tracking, it’s estimated that by 2025, at least seven out of ten American companies will keep digital tabs on their employees to measure productivity.

The study – created by the UK-based online resume builder StandoutCV – set out to compare 2023 post-pandemic monitoring trends to the same statistics gathered by the company in 2021.

The statistics reveal that “one in three employers now has the tools to track the exact locations of their employees, which is a 44.85% increase in the last two years,” said Andrew Fennell, Director at StandOut CV.

Examining the fifty most popular monitoring tools from both years, the study also showed that almost 25% of bossware have more invasive features now than they did in 2021.

Fennell said tools have gotten savvier since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic when remote work was still in its infancy.

For example, screenshots can be set to snap randomly, at set times of day, or based on trigger actions, such as going on an entertainment website."

Of those monitoring programs, the most popular surveillance features among employers include:

• time tracking (96%)
• taking screenshots of an employee’s computer screen (78%)
• video monitoring (42%)
• keylogging (40%)
• tracking by GPS location (34%)
• recording an employee’s audio through their devices internal microphone (8%).

What’s most disconcerting is that 38% of those tools are being used in stealth mode without the worker’s awareness or explicit permission.

And, more than 80% of those employees are being monitored in real-time.

"Employees' most private conversations could be recorded in their homes without their prior consent or knowledge," Fennell said.

Although the study did show the use of stealth mode has decreased slightly since 2023, 78% of these “productivity” tools are based on employer-set conditions.

This means that without a standard, monitoring tools could be set differently for each employee and department, or change without cause or warning, potentially contributing to workplace discrimination, retaliation, and tamping down on union activities.

“To keep people safe, we’d recommend checking your employee handbook for information on the companies monitoring policies, to understand what they are (or aren’t) collecting,” Fennell said.

“Additionally, as a general rule based on the results of our analysis, people should look to separate their work from personal devices and personal use from work devices.”

Employee monitoring has become a hot topic in recent months, not just in the US, but worldwide.

According to StandoutCV, Teramind, Verioto Vision, Clever Control, and SentryPC represent the top half of the ten most invasive monitoring programs and are being used in at least a dozen countries.

Advocates argue that invasive monitoring tools can violate worker privacy and safety while negatively impacting a person’s overall mental and physical health.

Last week, the White House launched a public survey initiative to understand how American workers feel about being monitored by their employers and to evaluate the “serious risks” posed to those subjected to the practices.

StandoutCV said the monitoring software and tools selected for the study were based on the popularity and frequency of their features.