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Australian Man Uses Snack Bags As Faraday Cage To Block Tracking By Employer (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: A 60-year-old electrician in Perth, Western Australia had his termination upheld by a labor grievance commission when it was determined he had been abusing his position and technical knowledge to squeeze in some recreation during working hours. Tom Colella used mylar snack bags to block GPS tracking via his employer-assigned personal digital assistant to go out to play a round of golf -- more than 140 times -- while he reported he was offsite performing repairs.
In his finding against Colella, Australia Fair Work Commissioner Bernie Riordan wrote: "I have taken into account that Mr Colella openly stored his PDA device in an empty foil 'Twisties' bag. As an experienced electrician, Mr Colella knew that this bag would work as a faraday cage, thereby preventing the PDA from working properly -- especially the provision of regular GPS co-ordinate updates Mr. Colella went out of his way to hide his whereabouts. He was concerned about Aroona tracking him when the Company introduced the PDA into the workplace. He protested about Aroona having this information at that time. Mr Colella then went out of his way to inhibit the functionality of the PDA by placing it in a foil bag to create a faraday cage."
In his finding against Colella, Australia Fair Work Commissioner Bernie Riordan wrote: "I have taken into account that Mr Colella openly stored his PDA device in an empty foil 'Twisties' bag. As an experienced electrician, Mr Colella knew that this bag would work as a faraday cage, thereby preventing the PDA from working properly -- especially the provision of regular GPS co-ordinate updates Mr. Colella went out of his way to hide his whereabouts. He was concerned about Aroona tracking him when the Company introduced the PDA into the workplace. He protested about Aroona having this information at that time. Mr Colella then went out of his way to inhibit the functionality of the PDA by placing it in a foil bag to create a faraday cage."
Correct. It is totally legitimate to not want to be tracked or surveilled constantly at almost every job at almost every time but saying that you did maintenance or servicing of equipment when you did not is unjustified and fraudulent. If he did that as well, then he is using privacy rights as a thin proxy for being unprofessional.
"Airplane mode"
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No, it doesn't.
I work with plenty of electricians -- both inside wiremen and outside linemen. I can say with near certainty that perhaps 20% -- maybe 30% -- of those would understand that a Mylar bag would block GPS.
Most electricians and linemen understand the mechanics (pull cable, cut/bend conduit, set poles, drill holes, terminate wire where the drawing says to, etc etc...) much more then they understand electrical theory. When discussing arc flash and upstream breaker fault clearing times with them, for example, I get that blank stare much more often than not.
Beware of the Leopard.
Well there are a few industries that are fully tracked - truckers for example are fully tracked and their whereabouts are known to the dispatcher at all times. This is usually not a good thing (dispatchers hate truckers who "waste time"), though it does allow a customer to ask the trucking company where the truck is in case the loading dock is full.
It also sometimes helps when the truck is hijacked, run off the road, or other emergency. Sometimes it happens without leaving a witness mark on the side of the road (especially in winter) so unless the dispatcher notices the signal is lost and where the last location pings were, no one might actually notice for days.
I'm assuming this company did it so they can advise customers that a technician is coming around. Think of it this way - the employee gets a new route uploaded to his phone and GPS tracks his progress. The employee keeps the truck at his house and simply starts and ends the day at home - no need to commute to the office to pick up the work orders - they're automatically transmitted to the phone, and GPS tracks what's been done If he needs to return to the base for parts or supplies, it can be scheduled in when he's nearby. It's telecommuting for the new era - and anyone with a service agreement probably experienced it - the techs are located all around, probably their house having a stockpile of common parts and they're dispatched by phone to the busienss needing service. This way the techs are home when idle instead of just wasting time at some office everyone had to commute to.