Corporate surveillance

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Corporate surveillance describes the practice of businesses monitoring and extracting information from their users, clients, or staff. [1] This information may consist of online browsing history, email correspondence, phone calls, location data, and other private details. Acts of corporate surveillance frequently look to boost results, detect potential security problems, or adjust advertising strategies. These practices have been criticized for violating ethical standards and invading personal privacy. Critics and privacy activists have called for businesses to incorporate rules and transparency surrounding their monitoring methods to ensure they are not misusing their position of authority or breaching regulatory standards. [2]

Contents

Monitoring can feel intrusive and give the impression that the business does not promote ethical behavior among its personnel. Staff satisfaction, productivity, and staff turnover may all suffer as a result of the invasion of privacy. [3]

Monitoring methods

Employers may be authorized to gather information through keystroke logging and mouse tracking, which involves recording the keys individuals interact with and cursor position on computers. In cases where employment contracts permit it, they may also monitor webcam activity on company-provided computers. Employers may be able to view the emails sent from business accounts and may be able to see the websites visited when using a corporate internet connection. [4] The screenshot capability is another tool that enables companies to see what remote workers are doing. This feature, which can be found in tracking software, takes screenshots throughout the day at predetermined or arbitrary intervals. [5] Additionally, people who don't work in offices are observed. For instance, it has been claimed that Amazon has incorporated tracking technology to monitor warehouse staff and delivery drivers. [4]

Use of collected information

Information collected by corporations can be used for a variety of uses including marketing research, targeting advertising, fraud detection and prevention, ensuring policy adherence, preventing lawsuits, and safeguarding records and company assets. [6]

Privacy concerns

Concerns over corporate privacy have become more important due to companies collection and manipulation of personal data. [7] Since these practices have been recognized there has been a rising concern about both the security and the possible mishandling of the data accumulated.

Social Media data collection and monitoring has been one of the most concerned areas regarding corporate surveillance. Recently, many employers on CareerBuilder have checked their potential candidates' social media activities before the hiring process. [8] This approach can be excusable since it is important to be aware of a future employee or applicant's online presence, and how it might affect the company's reputation in the future. This is crucial since employers are often made legally responsible for their worker's digital actions. [9]

These data can also be used to enact political gains. The Facebook-Cambridge Analytica data scandal in 2018 revealed that its British branch to have surreptitiously sold American psychological data to the Trump campaign. [10] This information was supposed to be private, but Facebook's inability to protect user information had reportedly not been a top priority of the company at the time. [11]

Laws and regulations

Sale of customer data

An interaction between a web browser and a web server holding a webpage in which the server sends a cookie to the browser. HTTP cookie exchange.svg
An interaction between a web browser and a web server holding a webpage in which the server sends a cookie to the browser.
Google's New York City office building houses its largest advertising sales team. 111 Eighth Avenue.jpg
Google's New York City office building houses its largest advertising sales team.

If it is business intelligence, data collected on individuals and groups can be sold to other corporations, so that they can use it for the aforementioned purpose. It can be used for direct marketing purposes, such as targeted advertisements on Google and Yahoo. These ads are tailored to the individual user of the search engine by analyzing their search history and emails [14] (if they use free webmail services).

For example, the world's most popular web search engine stores identifying information for each web search. Google stores an IP address and the search phrase used in a database for up to 2 years. [15] Google also scans the content of emails of users of its Gmail webmail service, in order to create targeted advertising based on what people are talking about in their personal email correspondences. [16] Google is, by far, the largest web advertising agency. Their revenue model is based on receiving payments from advertisers for each page-visit resulting from a visitor clicking on a Google AdWords ad, hosted either on a Google service or a third-party website. Millions of sites place Google's advertising banners and links on their websites, in order to share this profit from visitors who click on the ads. Each page containing Google advertisements adds, reads, and modifies cookies on each visitor's computer. [17] These cookies track the user across all of these sites, and gather information about their web surfing habits, keeping track of which sites they visit, and what they do when they are on these sites. This information, along with the information from their email accounts, and search engine histories, is stored by Google to use for building a profile of the user to deliver better-targeted advertising. [16]

Surveillance of workers

A call centre worker confined to a small workstation/booth. Callcentreterminal.JPG
A call centre worker confined to a small workstation/booth.

In 1993, David Steingard and Dale Fitzgibbons argued that modern management, far from empowering workers, had features of neo-Taylorism, where teamwork perpetuated surveillance and control. They argued that employees had become their own "thought police" and the team gaze was the equivalent of Bentham's panopticon guard tower. [18] A critical evaluation of the Hawthorne Plant experiments has in turn given rise to the notion of a Hawthorne effect, where workers increase their productivity in response to their awareness of being observed or because they are gratified for being chosen to participate in a project. [19]

According to the American Management Association and the ePolicy Institute, who undertook a quantitative survey in 2007 about electronic monitoring and surveillance with approximately 300 US companies, "more than one fourth of employers have fired workers for misusing email and nearly one third have fired employees for misusing the Internet." [20] Furthermore, about 30 percent of the companies had also fired employees for usage of "inappropriate or offensive language" and "viewing, downloading, or uploading inappropriate/offensive content." [20] More than 40 percent of the companies monitor email traffic of their workers, and 66 percent of corporations monitor Internet connections. [20] In addition, most companies use software to block websites such as sites with games, social networking, entertainment, shopping, and sports. The American Management Association and the ePolicy Institute also stress that companies track content that is being written about them, for example by monitoring blogs and social media, and scanning all files that are stored in a filesystem. [20]

Government use of corporate surveillance data

The United States government often gains access to corporate databases, either by producing a warrant for it, or by asking. The Department of Homeland Security has openly stated that it uses data collected from consumer credit and direct marketing agencies—such as Google—for augmenting the profiles of individuals whom it is monitoring. [21] The US government has gathered information from grocery store discount card programs, which track customers' shopping patterns and store them in databases, in order to look for terrorists by analyzing shoppers' buying patterns. [22]

Corporate surveillance of citizens

According to Dennis Broeders, "Big Brother is joined by big business". [23] He argues that corporations are in any event interested in data on their potential customers and that placing some forms of surveillance in the hands of companies, results in companies owning video surveillance data for stores and public places. The commercial availability of surveillance systems has led to their rapid spread. Therefore it is almost impossible for citizens to maintain their anonymity. [23]

When businesses can monitor their customers, such customers run the risk of facing prejudice when applying for housing, loans, jobs, and other economic opportunities. [24] The consumer may not even be aware that they are being treated differently if discrimination results in different prices being charged for the same goods. Without their knowledge, their information was being accessed and sold.

In February 2024, concerns over the collection of customer data without their knowledge were raised at the University of Waterloo following a post on Reddit and a published article in the school newspaper mathNEWS, in which vending machines displayed an error suggesting facial recognition software was in use by the machines. Following this error, the university requested for the machines to have their facial recognition software disabled and eventually removed. [25] [26] On February 29, the Ontario privacy commissioner announced that it would be beginning an investigation into the installation of the vending machines. [27]

See also

Related Research Articles

Computer and network surveillance is the monitoring of computer activity and data stored locally on a computer or data being transferred over computer networks such as the Internet. This monitoring is often carried out covertly and may be completed by governments, corporations, criminal organizations, or individuals. It may or may not be legal and may or may not require authorization from a court or other independent government agencies. Computer and network surveillance programs are widespread today and almost all Internet traffic can be monitored.

Consumer privacy is information privacy as it relates to the consumers of products and services.

Email marketing is the act of sending a commercial message, typically to a group of people, using email. In its broadest sense, every email sent to a potential or current customer could be considered email marketing. It involves using email to send advertisements, request business, or solicit sales or donations. Email marketing strategies commonly seek to achieve one or more of three primary objectives: build loyalty, trust, or brand awareness. The term usually refers to sending email messages with the purpose of enhancing a merchant's relationship with current or previous customers, encouraging customer loyalty and repeat business, acquiring new customers or convincing current customers to purchase something immediately, and sharing third-party ads.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Electronic Communications Privacy Act</span> 1986 United States federal law

The Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 (ECPA) was enacted by the United States Congress to extend restrictions on government wire taps of telephone calls to include transmissions of electronic data by computer, added new provisions prohibiting access to stored electronic communications, i.e., the Stored Communications Act, and added so-called pen trap provisions that permit the tracing of telephone communications . ECPA was an amendment to Title III of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968, which was primarily designed to prevent unauthorized government access to private electronic communications. The ECPA has been amended by the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) of 1994, the USA PATRIOT Act (2001), the USA PATRIOT reauthorization acts (2006), and the FISA Amendments Act (2008)

Internet privacy involves the right or mandate of personal privacy concerning the storage, re-purposing, provision to third parties, and display of information pertaining to oneself via the Internet. Internet privacy is a subset of data privacy. Privacy concerns have been articulated from the beginnings of large-scale computer sharing and especially relate to mass surveillance.

Email privacy is a broad topic dealing with issues of unauthorized access to, and inspection of, electronic mail, or unauthorized tracking when a user reads an email. This unauthorized access can happen while an email is in transit, as well as when it is stored on email servers or on a user's computer, or when the user reads the message. In countries with a constitutional guarantee of the secrecy of correspondence, whether email can be equated with letters—therefore having legal protection from all forms of eavesdropping—is disputed because of the very nature of email.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Suggestion box</span>

The suggestion box is used for collecting slips of paper with input from customers and patrons of a particular organization. Suggestion boxes may also exist internally, within an organization, such as means for garnering employee opinion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Targeted advertising</span> Form of advertising

Targeted advertising is a form of advertising, including online advertising, that is directed towards an audience with certain traits, based on the product or person the advertiser is promoting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NebuAd</span> American online advertising company

NebuAd was an American online advertising company based in Redwood City, California, with offices in New York and London and was funded by the investment companies Sierra Ventures and Menlo Ventures. It was one of several companies which originally developed behavioral targeting advertising systems, and sought deals with ISPs to enable them to analyse customer's websurfing habits in order to provide them with more relevant, micro-targeted advertising. Phorm was a similar company operating out of Europe. Adzilla and Project Rialto also appear to be developing similar systems.

Workplace privacy is related with various ways of accessing, controlling, and monitoring employees' information in a working environment. Employees typically must relinquish some of their privacy while in the workplace, but how much they must do can be a contentious issue. The debate rages on as to whether it is moral, ethical and legal for employers to monitor the actions of their employees. Employers believe that monitoring is necessary both to discourage illicit activity and to limit liability. With this problem of monitoring employees, many are experiencing a negative effect on emotional and physical stress including fatigue, lowered employee morale and lack of motivation within the workplace. Employers might choose to monitor employee activities using surveillance cameras, or may wish to record employees activities while using company-owned computers or telephones. Courts are finding that disputes between workplace privacy and freedom are being complicated with the advancement of technology as traditional rules that govern areas of privacy law are debatable and becoming less important.

Employee monitoring is the surveillance of workers' activity. Organizations engage in employee monitoring for different reasons such as to track performance, to avoid legal liability, to protect trade secrets, and to address other security concerns. This practice may impact employee satisfaction due to its impact on the employee's privacy. Among organizations, the extent and methods of employee monitoring differ.

Web tracking is the practice by which operators of websites and third parties collect, store and share information about visitors’ activities on the World Wide Web. Analysis of a user's behaviour may be used to provide content that enables the operator to infer their preferences and may be of interest to various parties, such as advertisers. Web tracking can be part of visitor management.

Computer surveillance in the workplace is the use of computers to monitor activity in a workplace. Computer monitoring is a method of collecting performance data which employers obtain through digitalised employee monitoring. Computer surveillance may nowadays be used alongside traditional security applications, such as closed-circuit television.

Since the arrival of early social networking sites in the early 2000s, online social networking platforms have expanded exponentially, with the biggest names in social media in the mid-2010s being Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat. The massive influx of personal information that has become available online and stored in the cloud has put user privacy at the forefront of discussion regarding the database's ability to safely store such personal information. The extent to which users and social media platform administrators can access user profiles has become a new topic of ethical consideration, and the legality, awareness, and boundaries of subsequent privacy violations are critical concerns in advance of the technological age.

Do Not Track legislation protects Internet users' right to choose whether or not they want to be tracked by third-party websites. It has been called the online version of "Do Not Call". This type of legislation is supported by privacy advocates and opposed by advertisers and services that use tracking information to personalize web content. Do Not Track (DNT) is a formerly official HTTP header field, designed to allow internet users to opt-out of tracking by websites—which includes the collection of data regarding a user's activity across multiple distinct contexts, and the retention, use, or sharing of that data outside its context. Efforts to standardize Do Not Track by the World Wide Web Consortium did not reach their goal and ended in September 2018 due to insufficient deployment and support.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dataveillance</span> Monitoring and collecting online data and metadata

Dataveillance is the practice of monitoring and collecting online data as well as metadata. The word is a portmanteau of data and surveillance. Dataveillance is concerned with the continuous monitoring of users' communications and actions across various platforms. For instance, dataveillance refers to the monitoring of data resulting from credit card transactions, GPS coordinates, emails, social networks, etc. Using digital media often leaves traces of data and creates a digital footprint of our activity. Unlike sousveillance, this type of surveillance is not often known and happens discreetly. Dataveillance may involve the surveillance of groups of individuals. There exist three types of dataveillance: personal dataveillance, mass dataveillance, and facilitative mechanisms.

The commercialization of the Internet encompasses the creation and management of online services principally for financial gain. It typically involves the increasing monetization of network services and consumer products mediated through the varied use of Internet technologies. Common forms of Internet commercialization include e-commerce, electronic money, and advanced marketing techniques including personalized and targeted advertising. The effects of the commercialization of the Internet are controversial, with benefits that simplify daily life and repercussions that challenge personal freedoms, including surveillance capitalism and data tracking. This began with the National Science Foundation funding supercomputing center and then universities being able to develop supercomputer sites for research and academic purposes.

Surveillance capitalism is a concept in political economics which denotes the widespread collection and commodification of personal data by corporations. This phenomenon is distinct from government surveillance, though the two can reinforce each other. The concept of surveillance capitalism, as described by Shoshana Zuboff, is driven by a profit-making incentive, and arose as advertising companies, led by Google's AdWords, saw the possibilities of using personal data to target consumers more precisely.

The gathering of personally identifiable information (PII) is the practice of collecting public and private personal data that can be used to identify an individual for both legal and illegal applications. PII owners often view PII gathering as a threat and violation of their privacy. Meanwhile, entities such as information technology companies, governments, and organizations use PII for data analysis of consumer shopping behaviors, political preference, and personal interests.

Indiscriminate monitoring is the mass monitoring of individuals or groups without the careful judgement of wrong-doing. This form of monitoring could be done by government agencies, employers, and retailers. Indiscriminate monitoring uses tools such as email monitoring, telephone tapping, geo-locations, health monitoring to monitor private lives. Organizations that conduct indiscriminate monitoring may also use surveillance technologies to collect large amounts of data that could violate privacy laws or regulations. These practices could impact individuals emotionally, mentally, and globally. The government has also issued various protections to protect against indiscriminate monitoring.

References

  1. ↑ Wagner, Isabel (2022-03-24). Auditing Corporate Surveillance Systems. Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781108946940. ISBN   978-1-108-94694-0. S2CID   247687128.
  2. ↑ "Social Media Surveillance by the U.S. Government | Brennan Center for Justice". www.brennancenter.org. Retrieved 2023-05-10.
  3. ↑ "Laws and Ethics of Employment Monitoring and Privacy". Business News Daily. Retrieved 2023-04-26.
  4. 1 2 "Here are all the ways your boss can legally monitor you". Washington Post. ISSN   0190-8286 . Retrieved 2023-05-01.
  5. ↑ Czerwonka, Eric. "How do companies track employees? - Buddy Punch". buddypunch.com. Retrieved 2023-05-01.
  6. ↑ "Corporate Surveillance".
  7. ↑ Whitney, Lance (2021-08-17). "Data privacy is a growing concern for more consumers". TechRepublic. Retrieved 2023-05-10.
  8. ↑ "Why Monitoring Employees' Social Media Is a Bad Idea". Time. 2015-05-22. Retrieved 2023-05-03.
  9. ↑ "Why Monitoring Employees' Social Media Is a Bad Idea". Time. 2015-05-22. Retrieved 2023-05-03.
  10. ↑ Confessore, Nicholas (2018-04-04). "Cambridge Analytica and Facebook: The Scandal and the Fallout So Far". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2023-05-08.
  11. ↑ Confessore, Nicholas (2018-04-04). "Cambridge Analytica and Facebook: The Scandal and the Fallout So Far". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2023-05-08.
  12. ↑ "National Labor Relations Act | National Labor Relations Board". www.nlrb.gov. Retrieved 2023-05-08.
  13. ↑ "Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 (ECPA)". Bureau of Justice Assistance. Retrieved 2023-05-08.
  14. ↑ Louise Story (1 November 2007). "F.T.C. to Review Online Ads and Privacy". New York Times.
  15. ↑ "Google privacy booklet" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2020-10-21.
  16. 1 2 Priyanki Joshi (21 March 2009). "Every move you make, Google will be watching you". Business Standard.
  17. ↑ "Advertising and Privacy". 2009. Retrieved 21 March 2009.
  18. ↑ Jim Grieves (2003). Strategic Human Resource Development . SAGE. p.  58. ISBN   9781412932288.
  19. ↑ Carl E. Van Horn; Herbert A. Schaffner, eds. (2003). Work in America: N-Z . ABC-CLIO. p.  245. ISBN   9781576076767.
  20. 1 2 3 4 American Management Association and the ePolicy Institute (2008). Electronic Monitoring and Surveillance 2007 Survey Archived 2012-08-01 at the Wayback Machine .
  21. ↑ David von Drehle. "The Surveillance Society". Time.
  22. ↑ Kelley Vlahos (1 August 2002). "Store Customer Cards a Source for FBI?". FOX News.
  23. 1 2 Dennis Broeders (2009). Breaking Down Anonymity: Digital Surveillance of Irregular Migrants in Germany and the Netherlands. Amsterdam University Press. p. 45. ISBN   9789089641595.
  24. ↑ "Factsheet: Surveillance Advertising: Good for Consumers or the Ad-Tech Industry? · Consumer Federation of America". Consumer Federation of America. 26 August 2021. Retrieved 2023-05-03.
  25. ↑ Stanley, River (molasses) (2024-02-16). "The M&M'S Machines are Watching You" (PDF). ISSN   0705-0410 . Retrieved 2024-03-01.
  26. ↑ Wiens, Colton (2024-02-22). "'Facial recognition' error message on vending machine sparks concern at University of Waterloo". ISSN   1494-8184 . Retrieved 2024-03-01.
  27. ↑ Baig, Fakiha (2024-03-01). "Complaints filed with Ontario's privacy commissioner over vending machines at University of Waterloo" . Retrieved 2024-03-01.
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