Buongiorno, non fosse stato per la fonte (EFF) lo avrei scambiato per un articolo di Lercio [1]... poi proseguendo la lettura il mio sorriso si è trasformato in smorfia di disgusto. Pare non ci sia proprio nessun pudore, nessuna vergogna, nessuna etica che riesca ad evitare al genere umano di precipitare a simili livelli (c'è di peggio, lo so!). Ai giuristi in lista: *se* venisse fatta una cosa del genere in Italia da una azienda qualsiasi, in particolare da una multinazionale, il lavoratore potrebbe opporsi, sempre che abbia il coraggio di farlo e le competenze per scoprirlo? (Nota: la tabella "stralciata" dall'articolo e riportata più sotto viene visualizzata bene solo se si usa un font "monospaced") «Inside the Invasive, Secretive “Bossware” Tracking Workers» Bennett Cyphers, Karen Gullo; 1 Jul 2020 https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/06/inside-invasive-secretive-bossware-tra... --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8--- COVID-19 has pushed millions of people to work from home, and a flock of companies offering software for tracking workers has swooped in to pitch their products to employers across the country. [...] What can they do? Bossware typically lives on a computer or smartphone and has privileges to access data about everything that happens on that device. Most bossware collects, more or less, everything that the user does. We looked at marketing materials, demos, and customer reviews to get a sense of how these tools work. There are too many individual types of monitoring to list here, but we’ll try to break down the ways these products can surveil into general categories. [...] Every product we looked at has the ability to take frequent screenshots of each worker’s device, and some provide direct, live video feeds of their screens. This raw image data is often arrayed in a timeline, so bosses can go back through a worker’s day and see what they were doing at any given point. Several products also act as a keylogger, recording every keystroke a worker makes, including unsent emails and private passwords. A couple even let administrators jump in and take over remote control of a user’s desktop. These products usually don’t distinguish between work-related activity and personal account credentials, bank data, or medical information. [...] Some bossware goes even further, reaching into the physical world around a worker’s device. Companies that offer software for mobile devices nearly always include location tracking using GPS data. At least two services—StaffCop Enterprise and CleverControl—let employers secretly activate webcams and microphones on worker devices. There are, broadly, two ways bossware can be deployed: as an app that’s visible to (and maybe even controllable by) the worker, or as a secret background process that workers can’t see. Most companies we looked at give employers the option to install their software either way. [...] Invisible monitoring The majority of companies that build visible monitoring software also make products that try to hide themselves from the people they’re monitoring. Teramind, Time Doctor, StaffCop, and others make bossware that’s designed to be as difficult to detect and remove as possible. At a technical level, these products are indistinguishable from stalkerware. In fact, some companies require employers to specifically configure antivirus software before installing their products, so that the worker’s antivirus won’t detect and block the monitoring software’s activity. [...] The table below shows the monitoring and control features available from a small sample of bossware vendors. This isn’t a comprehensive list, and may not be representative of the industry as a whole; we looked at companies that were referred to in industry guides and search results that had informative publicly-facing marketing materials. Table: Common surveillance features of bossware products Activity Screenshots or Keylogging Webcam/ Can be made monitoring screen microphone "invisible" (apps, recordings activation websites) ActivTrak confirmed confirmed confirmed CleverControl confirmed confirmed confirmed confirmed confirmed (1, 2) DeskTime confirmed confirmed confirmed Hubstaff confirmed confirmed Interguard confirmed confirmed confirmed confirmed StaffCop confirmed confirmed confirmed confirmed confirmed (1, 2) Teramind confirmed confirmed confirmed confirmed TimeDoctor confirmed confirmed confirmed Work Examiner confirmed confirmed confirmed confirmed WorkPuls confirmed confirmed confirmed [...] Some of the biggest companies in the world use bossware. Hubstaff customers include Instacart, Groupon, and Ring. Time Doctor claims 83,000 users; its customers include Allstate, Ericsson, Verizon, and Re/Max. ActivTrak is used by more than 6,500 organizations, including Arizona State University, Emory University, and the cities of Denver and Malibu. Companies like StaffCop and Teramind do not disclose information about their customers, but claim to serve clients in industries like health care, banking, fashion, manufacturing, and call centers. Customer reviews of monitoring software give more examples of how these tools are used. [...] Unfortunately, many use cases involve employers wielding excessive power over workers. Perhaps the largest class of products we looked at are designed for “productivity monitoring” or enhanced time tracking—that is, recording everything that workers do to make sure they’re working hard enough. Some companies frame their tools as potential boons for both managers and workers. Collecting information about every second of a worker’s day isn’t just good for bosses, they claim—it supposedly helps the worker, too. Other vendors, like Work Examiner and StaffCop, market themselves directly to managers who don’t trust their staff. These companies often recommend tying layoffs or bonuses to performance metrics derived from their products. [...] Some firms also market their products as punitive tools, or as ways to gather evidence for potential worker lawsuits. InterGuard advertises that its software “can be silently and remotely installed, so you can conduct covert investigations [of your workers] and bullet-proof evidence gathering without alarming the suspected wrongdoer.” This evidence, it continues, can be used to fight “wrongful termination suits.” In other words, InterGuard can provide employers with an astronomical amount of private, secretly-gathered information to try to quash workers’ legal recourse against unfair treatment. [...] Unfortunately, excessive information collection often isn’t an accident, it’s a feature. Work Examiner specifically advertises its product’s ability to capture private passwords. Another company, Teramind, reports on every piece of information typed into an email client—even if that information is subsequently deleted. Several products also parse out strings of text from private messages on social media so that employers can know the most intimate details of workers’ personal conversations. [...] Companies that have adopted bossware must consider what their goals are, and should try to accomplish them in less-intrusive ways. Bossware often incentivizes the wrong kinds of productivity—for example, forcing people to jiggle their mouse and type every few minutes instead of reading or pausing to think. Constant monitoring can stifle creativity, diminish trust, and contribute to burnout. If employers are concerned about data security, they should consider tools that are specifically tailored to real threats, and which minimize the personal data caught up in the process. [...] COVID-19 has put new stresses on us all, and it is likely to fundamentally change the ways we work as well. However, we must not let it usher in a new era of even-more-pervasive monitoring. We live more of our lives through our devices than ever before. That makes it more important than ever that we have a right to keep our digital lives private—from governments, tech companies, and our employers. --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8--- Saluti, Giovanni. [1] https://www.lercio.it/stati-generali-renzi-propone-scudo-legale-anche-per-gl... -- Giovanni Biscuolo