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Australian Man Uses Snack Bags As Faraday Cage To Block Tracking By Employer (arstechnica.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the always-watching dept.

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."

20 of 193 comments (clear)

  1. person cheats system, gets caught, pays punishment by networkBoy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    next~!

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    whois gawk date unzip strip find touch finger mount join nice man top fsck grep eject more yes exit umount sleep dump
  2. tinfoil hat by AlanBDee · · Score: 5, Funny

    That's why I wear the hat people... to keep the government from tracking my thoughts.

    It looking like a pirate hat is just me expressing my sense of fashion.

  3. He's half a hero by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I can't call him a hero, but I definitely can't call him a bad guy. If you can play golf all the time and the only way the boss knows is by tracking you, the boss doesn't know much about what proper productivity can do. Follow this by the fact that so much "work" done these days is pointless BS anyway. He's only half a hero though--because his work probably isn't pointless BS if it's maintenance that's not initially noticeable but will later cost clients money or perhaps even lives.

    To be a full hero, do your job. If your job is being a boss, consider doing it without being big brother. Then you'd both be good regular guys, who are so scarce these days that they look like full-on heroes.

  4. Read the report by guruevi · · Score: 5, Informative

    It's not all he did nor the only way they substantiated the facts. He claimed to be at work, but never swiped in at the client sites and things like chlorine analysers show they were never serviced even though he claimed they did.

    --
    Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
    1. Re:Read the report by koavf · · Score: 5, Interesting

      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.

    2. Re:Read the report by devman · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It would be different if he was meeting all his goals and requirements. Gundecking is a serious offense being a breach of trust and can be straight up dangerous. It should generally always be met with termination if not a lawsuit or fraud complaint.

    3. Re:Read the report by tlhIngan · · Score: 5, Interesting

      They are probably jerks themselves sticking their noses into their employees whereabouts - control vs trust. It says more about the management than the employees.

      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.

  5. Re:Looks like the manager should be looked at too by Ogive17 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Wonder what his handicap was....

    Working

    --
    "Action without philosophy is a lethal weapon; philosophy without action is worthless."
  6. Since When by DougDot · · Score: 5, Funny

    Since when did you have to be "an experienced electrician" to know that Mylar blocks a device's GPS radio?

    Maybe Slashdot should have hired an experienced editor to write the summary.

    1. Re:Since When by GuB-42 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It is the reverse: you don't need to be an experienced electrician to know, but being an experienced electrician means you most certainly know.
      It means that he can't feign ignorance.

      Also, while it is a well known fact that metal blocks radio waves, there are some details you need to know in order to use this technique effectively.

    2. Re:Since When by Known+Nutter · · Score: 5, Interesting

      being an experienced electrician means you most certainly know.

      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.
  7. probably impractical by swell · · Score: 5, Informative

    Your phone will try to connect to wifi & cell towers. It will try HARD. It will drain the battery rapidly. At least that's what my phone did when I traveled to a very remote area. It got very hot and drained a full battery in less than two hours. It was an older model, YMMV.

    --
    ...omphaloskepsis often...
    1. Re:probably impractical by networkBoy · · Score: 4, Interesting

      "Airplane mode"

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      whois gawk date unzip strip find touch finger mount join nice man top fsck grep eject more yes exit umount sleep dump
  8. Re:person cheats system, gets caught, pays punishm by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 5, Funny

    person cheats system, gets caught, pays punishment

    Or, rather, he Cheetos the system ...

    --
    It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
  9. Additional information by tgibson · · Score: 5, Informative

    Finding the article lacking, I did a little more digging and found some reviews of Twisties.

  10. Re:person cheats system, gets caught, pays punishm by Darinbob · · Score: 5, Funny

    Poster is unaware of the existence of a larger world outside of the United States. Everyone else please take care to only discuss the outside world elsewhere lest poster is be shocked by the sudden revelation.

  11. Re:Looks like the manager should be looked at too by bloodhawk · · Score: 5, Insightful

    He was claiming to have performed work that he never actually did. He was caught out when it was shown that he hadn't serviced the equipment he was claiming to have done. basically unless you expect the manager to be running to every site and inspecting the equipment after it is supposedly serviced I am not sure what you think the Manager could have done. The guy lied his arse off, eventually these sort of people get caught but it isn't realistic for a manager to be standing over a supposed professional workmans shoulder all day every day.

  12. Re:person cheats system, gets caught, pays punishm by interkin3tic · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Using a chip bag as a faraday cage to block your employer's tracking device from communicating with satellites in order to goof off isn't interesting to you?

    Turn in your nerd badge immediately. And don't try to snack-bag your way out of this one.

    Seriously, what the fuck? Are slashdotters so miserable that we're more interested in cheering someone getting punished than an amusing hack?

  13. Re:person cheats system, gets caught, pays punishm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Seriously, what the fuck? Are slashdotters so miserable that we're more interested in cheering someone getting punished than an amusing hack?

    Posting AC to avoid burning modded posts.

    Yes, altogether too many Slashdotters er bitter-ass gits. Where we were once home to technologists, we are mostly just pissed off trolls now who worship 1950.

  14. Re:Looks like the manager should be looked at too by Cederic · · Score: 5, Insightful

    No, they'd just have more time to focus on the aspects of management other than supervision.

    I have a manager. She deals with shit so that I don't have to, argues with HR and her manager to get me pay rises, and lets me know the things she's being asked to help with.

    In return I sometimes help her with them. Sometimes I just do my own thing and let her know. Sometimes I don't let her know; I tend to be rather good at getting credit for the work I do anyway, without needing the shameless self promotion.