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Surveillance in the Workplace Goes Far Beyond Ensuring Nobody Steals Paper Clips.

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Surveillance in the workplace has an unflattering history.

The concept was embraced by Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin and Benito Mussolini and used with Orwellian abandon to remind a frightened populace that Yes, someone is always watching.

This concept of Big Brother (the tool of an oppressive state, not the TV show) has stayed with us and does not look likely to fall out of favor anytime soon.

Unlike the Volkswagen and Kindergarten, two of Hitler’s slightly better ideas, Big Brother in the workplace has become a more invasive and worrying presence.

Under the guise of the old chestnut “If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear” employers are leaving fewer and fewer corners in which an employee can retain their privacy.

Research in Motion, the world’s leading manufacturer of Black Berry, admitted that ALL conversations of their employees conducted on company-issued devices are recorded.

This is in order to “prevent sensitive information from leaking outside their company”.

This goes against general wisdom that only written communication like email is monitored.

It also goes against general wisdom that when a company that issues a cell phone or hand-held device, an employee will almost certainly make some personal calls that should remain private.

Most countries legislation regarding surveillance in the workplace prohibits any kind of surveillance taking place without the employee’s knowledge.

But what really constitutes consent? In the case of Research in Motion, the new policy was not widely advertised to employees.

Even the ones that were aware of the move were reluctant to put forward too many objections.

It these non-unionized times, the only leverage an uncomfortable employee has is to threaten to leave: not an easy threat during a recession.

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Surveillance Increases and Privacy Erodes

Big Brother does not just limit himself to surveillance in the workplace.

Google has recently announced that they will increase their tracking of Internet habits of millions of people in order to better direct their advertising.

The nature of these tracking increases remains unclear, but those who remember the Google Goof (of accidentally publishing millions of users Net usage patterns) may be signing up to anonymous ISPs or saying goodbye to their favorite risqué sites.

Today, you can’t even shop anonymously. Shopping centers are increasingly implementing Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), which is able to scan any product containing an embedded chip.

You don’t have to take the item out of a bag for it to be tracked.

Every product is assigned its unique number at the point of manufacture.

The number is transmitted by a radio frequency and picked up by RFID.

If you are carrying an RFID-enabled item, you are locatable.

Manufacturers say they have limited RFID transmission capabilities to a few feet.

Trust them?

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Surveillance Data Stored Indefinitely

The Google Goof showed that mistakes happen. Even innocent mistakes can be embarrassing and have long lasting consequences for people whose information is mishandled.

But if the intent is not so innocent, then what?

Those who argue against surveillance in the workplace (and the Big Brother culture in general) are especially uncomfortable with keeping information “on file” for extended periods of time.

When social and political fashion changes, can a past habit be used against you?

If workplace surveillance were as rife in 1940s America as it is now, how many individuals would be the target of lengthy lawsuits as lung cancer sufferers sued everyone who smoked in their environment?

If you were once recorded joking about bombs and hijackings in the 1970s, how easily will you sleep in a climate of post-9/11 paranoia?

The purpose of surveillance in the workplace may well be to discover the weaknesses of an organization and enhance efficiency and productivity.

To many ears, this has the ring of sanity: A “good” and “valid” reason to minutely watch beleaguered employees and ensure that not a single cent is wasted on conversation, jokes, or musing in the workplace.

It seems that economic “rationalism” is now a better choice than the “freedom and liberty for all” quietly offered by the U.S. Constitution.

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