Covert CCTV Monitoring in the Workplace?

An Inquiring Mind asks: "A good friend's employer has recently installed a CCTV system in the office she works at. This is not unusual in itself, but there is no notice that CCTV is in use, and no company policy regarding CCTV use in employee monitoring, data retention, or anything else. My understanding is that CCTV use in the UK is covered by the DPA (Data Protection Act) if: it is used to gather information about an individual; is monitored remotely; or is given to people other than law enforcement bodies (this from a CCTV/PDA document [pdf], from the website of the Information Commissioner's Office). If it does fall under the remit of the DPA, then they would need at least signage, and a policy for the retention of the data. Given that this camera would likely fall foul of the DPA, that challenging the employer would be career suicide (due to internal politics), and that she has nothing to hide -- what do other Slashdot readers think should be the next step for my friend: principled but suicidal stand, or quiet annoyance?" Much of what is allowed depends on the law of the land in your area. Depending on what the laws do and do not allow, how would you safely approach your employers to air your concerns on this subject?

Comments

Do them a favour

[Anonymous Coward]

Why not do them a favour and post your own signage and privacy policy? Post small signs around the office:

"You may be under video surveilance while you work. No privacy policy is available."

If they try to take the signs down, repost them. You wouldn't want your employer to get into trouble, after all.

-Kell

Re:one word

[tomhudson]

1. wire snippers are cheaper, easier to hide.

2. laser pointers are cheaper, more fun.

3. nail polish remover will frost over the protective dome

4. vaseline will make it look like the ccd has gone bad

5. if its 2.4 ghz wireless, its a 4 channel unit. Find out which channel its sending, and broadcast a movie on the same frequency, but closer to the receiver. The transmitters aren't that expensive - just hook the dvd out to the transmitter in - no camera needed. To find the actual frequency, plug the receiver into a cheap hand-held portable tv.

6. grape juice in a water pistol, or a can of coke shaken, then "accidently" opened just under it, work wonders for a temporary blind

7. find the power source once you've temporarily blinded it (some use wall-warts, some use a 12 volt feeder wire) and give it 120 volts

8. look around for a microphone. Some units have the mike built in, some use a separate microphone. Cut the microphone and attach a dozen feet of crappy unshielded audio cable. Nothing more annoying than picking up spanish AM radio broadcasts when you're trying to spy on someone

9. again, find the microphone, and start telling outrageous lies about how you accidently walked in on one of the managers playing with a penis pump, or you saw them in a restaurant having supper with someone you KNOW works for the competition (have a receipt on hand for your own meal at the restaurant as "evidence" that it actually took place - you can "prove" you were there).

10. the cam leads usually go into a dvr. The dvr has 1 or more boards, with 4 to 8 a/v processors per board. tap into the video feed and throw some low-amperage AC into the circut. If you get lucky, you can fry the computer, not just the board. If you can tap into 2 camera feeds, then you can connect the core of each feed to opposite sides of your AC circuit - one amp should do it. Much more than that will melt the wires on the pig-tail used to connect the cams to the boards.

How bad things already are in the UK

[Anonymous Brave Guy]

I realise one has to keep these things in perspective, but you're spectacularly missing the point in some of these cases.

The insidious thing about ASBOs is that they allow the creation and punishment of new crimes without parliamentary or even judicidial oversight. An ASBO can say more-or-less anything, and breaking an ASBO can carry heavy prison sentence, even if the act prohibited by the ASBO carries no such sentence in law.

Smoking in bars, pubs and even private members' clubs in England will shortly be illegal under recently-passed legislation.

The road camera tracking network is going live any day now, by the admission of senior police officers involved. It has neither needed nor received any parliamentary oversight until the issue was raised recently, since previous legislation was so broad that the police could just go ahead and impose the most pervasive surveillance system in human history without so much as a by-your-leave. No doubt some MPs and probably the Information Commissioner will kick up more of a fuss when the issue finally hits the papers big-time, but by then it will, as ever, be too late.

Seriously, these things are happening, and they do have more than sinister overtones. Did you realise that an act is quietly going through Parliament that will allow ministers, without any further recourse to Parliament nor any vote of MPs, to impose major new legislation, including several of the things that have recently been strongly opposed in both houses? Several professors of Law at Cambridge University recently wrote to a national newspaper expressing their dismay at this turn of events and their support for Cambridge MP David Howarth's challenge against it, but other than that, even the mainstream media appears not to have noticed.

At current rates (i.e., with the proposals currently proceeding through Parliament passing into law on the expected timetable, and based on current or announced intent in the use of the laws by the relevant authorities) the following will be true in the UK by 2010:

• Anyone walking in the street may be stopped by a police officer, searched, and their property confiscated.
• Anyone walking in the street may be arrested by a police officer, taken to a police station, held without charge for up to 28 days (and they're pushing for 90 again), and have their DNA and other biometric information forcibly collected and added to a national database, there to remain in perpetuity even if they are released without charge.
• Anyone walking in the street may be moved on by a police officer, even if they have committed no offence.
• Anyone wanting to get a passport will be required to submit biometric information to that same National Identity Register (though of course, ID cards aren't going to be mandatory yet -- you don't have to get a passport -- unless you want to travel anywhere, that is).
• All members of the public will be tracked almost anywhere in public they go, via CCTV, the road camera network, and other surveillance mechanisms. (These mechanisms will conveniently be off-line for maintenance in the event that the police decide to detain hundreds of civilians illegally for several hours during a prominent but entirely legal protest. Unless it's outside the Houses of Parliament, in which case such protests are no longer legal and the citizens can be arrested.)
• All communications providers will be required, at their own expense, to record the nature of the activities of all of their customers, and to turn this information over to the authorities on demand. Any personal computer equipment owned by any suspected individuals may be confiscated without any charge being brought, and failure to disclose the password to access any information the authorities suspect to be on that equipment, regardless of whether any such information and password exist, will be a criminal offence carrying a penalty of several years in prison.
• Government officials who are not even directly

Re:How bad things already are in the UK

[(negative video)]

An ASBO can say more-or-less anything, and breaking an ASBO can carry heavy prison sentence, even if the act prohibited by the ASBO carries no such sentence in law.

And didn't I hear that They are trying to give Themselves the option of sending a "super nanny" in to live with offending families, to retrain their behavior along socially-correct lines?

I suspect the only way we're going to undo the current mess is to form a proper, written constitution enumerating things like the right to reasonable privacy ...

Perhaps. The experience here in America has been that "rights" can be twisted to mean anything, that what really matters is that the people have the backbone to stand up for themselves. Or to put it conversely, people get the government they deserve, and they get it good and hard. Unfortunately, the UK seems to have a collective spine of jello. Things seem likely to get much, much worse before they get better.

Common in the workplace?

[Hulleye]

I am just curious about how common it is for employers to monitor their staff. Recently, I discovered some spyware installed on all the machines in my organisation that takes screenshots of the desktop at ten-minute intervals in addition to logging keystrokes. (Activity Monitor from www.softactivity.com)

None of the employees were made aware of the fact that they would be monitored and this degree of intrusion has compromised personal information, passwords, bank accounts etc. This kind of websurfing has previously never been discouraged at our workplace.

The software comes with an easy uninstaller so i went ahead and uninstalled it from all the computers in my department. (The IT dept. subsequently came to "check" the computers in our dept. and i discovered the software had once again been installed on the machines) But the only reason I discovered it in the first place is that I randomly check what processes are running on my machine. Most people simply would not know to check for random or strange processes and the few people I have told about this don't really seem too bothered or surprised by the fact that the company is doing this.

This is an extremely underhanded way of keeping a check on your employees. Though I do not agree with this type of monitoring, it may have been acceptable had we been told from the very start that our computer usage would be monitored. Has anyone else had experience with their computers being monitored in this way?