The proliferation of surveillance technologies has seen them become a commonplace tool used by management in public, private, and nonprofit organizations. The largely unregulated deployment of surveillance tools has resulted in them being deeply entrenched in the modern workplace, with employees who know of their existence resigned to their presence.
Surveillance can take many forms, from monitoring employee productivity, location, tracking online or device activity, drug testing, or even using algorithms in the pre-employment recruitment and assessment processes.
Workplace surveillance is often justified as necessary for employee and public safety or security, and loss prevention — arguments that have successfully been used to trump serious concerns about privacy, worker autonomy, and human rights.
The increasingly digital workplace, supplemented by integrated artificial intelligence systems and networked technological environments significantly amplifies data collection, which can routinely extend beyond the workplace, blurring work-life boundaries.
The Ontario government has studied the issue of workplace surveillance and its impacts, and published a report documenting the frequency and impact of surveillance on employees.
