Are Google and Facebook Surveilling Their Own Employees? (theguardian.com)

The Guardian just ran an article titled " 'They'll squash you like a bug': how Silicon Valley keeps a lid on leakers," which begins with the story of an employee confronted by Facebook's secretive "rat-catching" team: They had records of a screenshot he'd taken, links he had clicked or hovered over, and they strongly indicated they had accessed chats between him and the journalist, dating back to before he joined the company. "It's horrifying how much they know," he told the Guardian, on the condition of anonymity... "You get on their bad side and all of a sudden you are face to face with Mark Zuckerberg's secret police"... One European Facebook content moderator signed a contract, seen by the Guardian, which granted the company the right to monitor and record his social media activities, including his personal Facebook account, as well as emails, phone calls and internet use. He also agreed to random personal searches of his belongings including bags, briefcases and car while on company premises. Refusal to allow such searches would be treated as gross misconduct...

Some employees switch their phones off or hide them out of fear that their location is being tracked. One current Facebook employee who recently spoke to Wired asked the reporter to turn off his phone so the company would have a harder time tracking if it had been near the phones of anyone from Facebook. Two security researchers confirmed that this would be technically simple for Facebook to do if both people had the Facebook app on their phone and location services switched on. Even if location services aren't switched on, Facebook can infer someone's location from wifi access points.
The article cites a 2012 report that Microsoft read a French blogger's Hotmail account to identify a former employee who had leaked trade secrets. And it also reports that tech companies hire external agencies to surveil their employees. "One such firm, Pinkerton, counts Google and Facebook among its clients." Though Facebook and Google both deny this, "Among other services, Pinkerton offers to send investigators to coffee shops or restaurants near a company's campus to eavesdrop on employees' conversations...

Al Gidari, consulting director of privacy at the Stanford Center for Internet and Society, says that these tools "are common, widespread, intrusive and legal."

Comments

Pinkertons...

[Anonymous Coward]

So Amazing they kept the name after this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Re: Pinkertons...

[Anonymous Coward]

What a surprise, the first visible comment is a rightard.

Employers collude to drive down both wages and working conditions if they aren't watched carefully, plus there are these little problems called "living expenses", hence all this nonsense about being "free to quit" is just so much bullshit. The swivel-eyed right seem to think this is absolutely fine, of course. Here's a hint: selling your time is a transaction for which there must be an agreement about what is done, how it is done and how much the compensation is for doin git, and all of this works better for all involved if that agreement is made in the spirit of co-operation under terms that are fair to all parties.

Go back to fellating Ryan, imbecile.

... and legal

[Anonymous Coward]

"... and legal" they write. But at best "and legal in some countries". Most of this would e.g. in Germany require a concrete suspicion and the "worker's council" to be informed (and probably approve) on a per-case basis at the least.
Some of this sounds like it would not be even remotely legal no matter what, unless you call the police and have them do it (which they'll probably not feel like though).

Re:... and legal

[Anonymous Coward]

Formally, you are right. But the "meme machine" is working on it.

I used to work for a bigger German company. Yes, there was a worker's council, and yes, they did the best they could. But whenever some change was announced, our managers talked about "oh, the council" and rolled their eyes... the message was clear.

There's a strong meme machine trying to convince us that everyone is a grown up and "doesn't have to accept any contract", thus protection laws are unnecessary (and hinder progress). Watch out for that, or we'll see even more abusive "tools".

Is this a trick question or something?

[Qbertino]

They're Facebook and Google. The are surveilling everybody.
They make a living off surveilling people.