Google Touts Worker Tracking As Own CEO Goes MIA

theodp writes "On Thursday, Google announced a product that enables a business to see where all its workers are at all times. Called Maps Coordinate, it combines a paid-for business version of Google's standard maps product with an application downloaded to a worker's smartphone, creating a real-time record of worker locations. Ironically, Google touted its worker tracking solution on the very same day that CEO Larry Page was a surprise no-show at Google's Annual Shareholder Meeting, leaving Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt to explain his absence. Schmidt explained that Page had lost his voice and, as a result, would likely also miss next week's I/O conference and possibly next month's quarterly earnings call. While a Google spokeswoman declined to comment further on Page's condition, Schmidt added that Page will continue as CEO while he recovers. So, why not reassure those worried about the situation by publicly tracking Page's location via Maps Coordinate? After all, Google's a true believer in eating its own dog food, right?"

Comments

Huh?

[Russ1642]

What kind of crap argument is that in the summary? Live tracking the CEO of Google because you're upset about your stocks. Genius.

Re:Huh?

[kidgenius]

What kind of crap argument is that in the summary? Live tracking the CEO of Google because you're upset about your stocks. Genius.

You identified it already. A crap one.

Re:Huh?

[Hatta]

No, live tracking the CEO of Google because Google is pushing live tracking of employees.

Re:Huh?

[TheGratefulNet]

since the priv'd class has their own judges, law system and rules (a closed, mini-society, essentially) I would not expect them to have to follow rules given to the worker classes.

and if I am using class warfare language, its because we ARE under class-warfare right now.

Re:Huh?

[thegarbz]

Wait you're right!

We never considered this in the past. We will completely rethink our strategy from this point forward.

From now on we will not track a single person, everyone's browsing habits will be anonymous.
Here's our new pricing policy:
- $0.10 per google search.
- $0.30 per click on a search result.
- $10 per month for Gmail.
- $0.50 per sqkm of map downloaded on maps.

This new pricing structure offers people exactly what they want. A completely ad free and untracked Google experience. If you do not wish to pay this pricing scheme or wish to keep using Google services for free, you can sign up for a free google experience by sending an email to please_track_me@google.com

Kind Regards
Larry Page

Google - Giving the customers the choice they always wanted.

Tracking employees is just wrong

[Anonymous Coward]

Today they're tracking us during office hours, tomorrow they're tracking us after-hours. What's next?

Re:Tracking employees is just wrong

[Jeng]

Today they're tracking us during office hours, tomorrow they're tracking us after-hours. What's next?

Hmm, perhaps

Mandatory yearly physicals that only the company gets to see the results of.

Pre-employment genetic testing.

Employment termination due to not living in an approved community.

Background checks of all family, friends, and neighbors.

Re:Tracking employees is just wrong

[AliasMarlowe]

Today they're tracking us during office hours, tomorrow they're tracking us after-hours. What's next?

Returning to civilized society?
As in switching your work phone on when you get to work, and switching it off when you leave work. That's what I do, because (i) the company's time is 37½ hours per week for 45 weeks of the year [minus a few statutory holidays], with all other time being my own, and (ii) nobody pays me to be "on-call" or available outside work hours, and an offer would have to be very attractive to get me to consent to such an arrangement. If any tracking application is on it, I can only be tracked during working hours. BTW, my job is not at the general lackey level, either.

Re:Tracking employees is just wrong

[Artraze]

I find it funny how "civilized society" to you means telling your employer to go pound sand if it's not precisely the time you're supposed to be in the building.
For me civilized is taking the occasional off-hours call in exchange for my employer allowing allowing me take an occasional (and, indeed, quite more frequent) bit of person time during work. Like reading and posting on slashdot, for instance. You know, like you're doing during these (ostensibly) business hours.

Re:Tracking employees is just wrong

[JoeMerchant]

Today they're tracking us during office hours, tomorrow they're tracking us after-hours. What's next?

Hmm, perhaps

Mandatory yearly physicals that only the company gets to see the results of.

Pre-employment genetic testing.

Employment termination due to not living in an approved community.

Background checks of all family, friends, and neighbors.

Oh, so you want to work in the Defense industry?

Re:Tracking employees is just wrong

[clonehappy]

Exactly. So, when I hear stories of how there are millions of jobs just waiting to be filled out here in 'Murrica, if only you sell your soul and dignity for $7.25 an hour, I don't bat an eye when I see that folks would rather choose welfare or unemployment benefits over indentured servitude. In fact, given the same situation, I believe I'd probably have to choose the same.

Re:Tracking employees is just wrong

[JonySuede]

I guess people just can't be drug addicts anymore once they get a degree or something.

It is worse than the, you are actually authorized to become one if you have the right job, I was missing my 20's legendary concentration ability, I talked to that to my company doctor and came out whit a prescription for 720 pills of 30mg dextroamphetamine-levolysinate. I am starting my seconds year on that, here are the effect I benefited from: a toned musculature, ripped abs, excellent cholesterol level and excellent energy(d'uh), stopped cannabis abuse, and yeah!, my concentration is back to a level I never experienced. However I am now addicted and if I forgot to take my pills I feel slow as fuck, to the point of being a borderline retard, and I am extremely irritable.

I also have a relative, a wood worker, who takes street amphetamine for the same purpose, he do not takes more than half a pills a day and it enable him to stay focused. He is also addicted.

Can someone tell me why my addiction is legally and socially acceptable but his is not ?

Does not correlate

[javajawa]

Really don't see how corporate tracking of employees suddenly becomes an expectation of publicly tracking an executive.

Re:Does not correlate

[Andy Dodd]

I agree. The description makes it sound like CEO caught a cold that included laryngitis... Seriously, that's not worthy of telling the whole goddamn planet where he is.

In a world where much work is done at a computer, it's pretty easy to continue as CEO of a company (especially one as tech-oriented as Google) but not be able to participate in a public speaking engagement due to laryngitis.

WTF?

[gstoddart]

it combines a paid-for business version of Google's standard maps product with an application downloaded to a worker's smartphone, creating a real-time record of worker locations

No. A thousand times no.

I can't believe people would be willing to do this.

Re:WTF?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's no different than companies tracking workers who drive company-owned vehicles. There are many legitimate reasons to do this. Companies that do repair household appliance repair, or telecom technicians are tracked in order to give customers updated time estimates of when the employee will arrive.

Re:WTF?

[gstoddart]

when Google gets into the mix suddenly it's all 1984

No, because once the technology is available, some asshole at the C level will decide that all employees need to install this on their phone. Even if is a privately owned phone.

I don't want the government tracking where I am. I don't want my employer tracking where I am. I don't want Google tracking where I am. As soon as one of them has it, the rest of them will want access to the information.

But you're right, it sure as hell is 1984 ... once people start doing this, there's all sorts of ways it gets abused or suffers from scope creep.

Eventually it becomes a condition of employment, or any number of things. Categorically, DO NOT WANT.

Re:WTF?

[h4rr4r]

You realize lots of organizations already do this right?

Scheduling arrivals of service people and deliveries pretty much requires tracking them.

Re:WTF?

[NeutronCowboy]

Or, more importantly, tracking important shipments and the drivers who are tasked with delivering them. It goes from being able to provide excellent service (Bill is exactly 67 miles from your office) to knowing where it is when it has been high-jacked. This is going to replace a lot of homegrown stuff.

Re:WTF?

[hawguy]

I doubt if it was a corporate device that the end user would know (regardless of the law).

I'm off to close my gmail account now because this has disgusted me. Sorry but I will never support an organisation that promotes such things. Back to mutt and postfix!

Do you really think Google is the only provider for employee tracking?

You better stop using the internet too.... your packets are being routed over Cisco gear, and Cisco sells appliances that enable employers to track their employees via Wifi tags. By continuing to use the internet, you're supporting Cisco.

If you really wanted to take a stand against employee tracking, you'd push your legislators to make it illegal. Closing your gmail account accomplishes nothing (and no one really believes that you're going to do it unless you're already not using it) Though I do think there are many legitimate reasons for an employer to track employees, like tracking outside service technicians to predict when they will be able to go to their next call, making sure that the courier that's carrying cash between buildings doesn't make any unexpected detours (due to carjack or outright theft), tracking scientists in a lab for safety - i.e. if he enters a hazardous materials storage room but doesn't leave the room after X minutes, maybe someone should check on him, etc.

Soulskill

[geek]

Leave it to Soulskill to post this crap. Time to block the editor again eh? Sad how low the standards have gotten here.

Re:Soulskill

[kidgenius]

There's a difference between posting an article about a controversial new google technology. It's quite another to stretch it out and say google is being hypocritical for not using the tech to track their ceo who is out sick. Then to go on with stupid ramblings of "assure those shareholders who are worried..." It really is stupid.

Re:Soulskill

[NatasRevol]

So you buy that he lost his voice and won't be at the quarterly earnings meeting - In late July?

That doesn't smell suspicious to you?

Re:permanent record of where everyone has been

[dkleinsc]

Who said the CEO would use this on himself? No, this kind of tracking is only for the peons.

CEO's do not equal rank-and-file employees

[unassimilatible]

So, why not reassure those worried about the situation by publicly tracking Page's location via Maps Coordinate?

Uh, because there would be no point? What does the CEO's location have to do with stock performance?

And I'm no Google fan (I'm an Apple stockholder), but there are obviously some security issues involving the whereabouts of a famous billionaire CEO (e.g., kidnap and ransom?) that don't apply to the rank-and-file employee.

Re:CEO's do not equal rank-and-file employees

[19thNervousBreakdown]

Uh, because there would be no point? What does the CEO's location have to do with stock performance?

Say, you're right! Let's stop paying them 500x what we pay rank-and-file employees while we're at it.

Re:CEO's do not equal rank-and-file employees

[swillden]

Larry Page's annual salary is $1.

He also doesn't get any stock or stock options... not sure about bonuses, but I don't think so. Of course, he personally owns a huge chunk of the $180B company, so it's not like he needs any direct income.

Google minus one...

[mindmaster064]

There probably was a time when Google was a beneficent geek Mecca but it has morphed into a tyrannical beast. Apple and Google both make my list of disappointing companies whom have decided to use their new found power for evil. Everything Google has been doing has been concerned with undermining privacy or stifling innovation and frankly other than being forced to YouTube (for lack of alternates) I won't have anything to do with their products personally. It's time to let these power hungry money grubbing shitheads die -- they are not what they sold us in the beginning anymore.

Re:Google minus one...

[geek]

I too have issues with Google but this "story" isn't one of them.

Regardless, what are alternatives? I can't even pay for products that equal googles. I've actively looked for services as good as theirs that I can pay for and not be tracked or sold to the highest bidder. I have yet to find decent replacements to gmail, google maps, docs and search. I did switch my email over to an iCloud account since I have an iPhone and a Mac anyway but still, Apple isn't the most moral company either.

I've considered running my own services and may very well end up doing so soon. I'd rather pay someone decent though and not trouble myself with the admin overhead. I get enough of it at work, I don't need it at home too.

Re:Google minus one...

[TheGratefulNet]

it has backfired on them, with many of us geeks.

non-geeks seem to like google and don't see or can't see the dark side. they also are fine with apple and MS, too, usually.

the geeks largely did take google on their word to not be evil. its been shown that this is no longer the case (hasn't been for quite some time) and while that brings them down to where every other mega-corp is, it stings worse when your confidence has been shaken or you feel you have been intentionally lied to or misled.

if google just was always an ad-company and was shameless about it, we could accept it for what it is, like many others. but they acted like they were inherently good and would always be doing the 'right thing'. we feel more betrayed since they sugar-coated their lie and kept saying it, with a straight face, for so long.

we get that they collect and sell info. and whatever gets us to their pages, where they collect our 'web-prints', is just a cost overhead to them disguised as a product or service to the users.

I really wonder if googlers think about this stuff, at night. do they see where their company is going? all the things they do and the plans they have? they are ok with this? I really wonder.

Re:Where's the ethics?

[TheGratefulNet]

they turn a blind eye.

treat them like primadonnas, give them free lunch and fancy perks and they'll turn a blind eye.

seriously. its easy to convince kids (most are kids, lets be honest) to ignore long-term ethical considerations when , OOH SHINEY! is given to them, again and again.