As the global Covid-19 pandemic swept across the world, digital technologies played a critical role in connecting employers with employees beyond the physical workplace and into employees’ homes. Not only have such advancements in technology allowed employees to work remotely, but they have also enabled employers to track, monitor and analyze workers in new and innovative ways. Emerging technologies provide employers with new forms of data about workers and, as a consequence, new opportunities for worker surveillance, management and even performance evaluation. Such developments have accelerated pre-existing trends such as the increasing quantification of activities or personal qualities of workers, seen as expanding in breadth and depth. Workplace surveillance, enabled by digital technologies, has been further intensified through the global health crisis, both at home and on-site. Indeed, crises are often used to justify the expansion of surveillance. These latest developments in workplace surveillance are fraught with potential privacy and security concerns and raise questions regarding data protection, rights, power and inequities. With estimates that up to one quarter of work hours could be performed remotely even after the pandemic ends, the tension between the rights of workers and concerns of employers in ensuring a safe and productive workforce are only set to grow.

Authors: Masoodi, M.J., Abdelaal, N., Tran, S., Stevens, Y., Andrey, S. and Bardeesy, K.  |  September 2021