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Barclays scraps 'Big Brother' staff tracking system within one week

bbc.co.uk

131–140 of 170 posts

Re: Barclays scraps 'Big Brother' staff tracking system within one week

#131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> With the corporations, you can go elsewhere. Typical quote from the 60s. This may be the reality for in-demand jobseekers in the current bubble, but it's typically not an option in the modern labor force.

Show me the machine guns. It may be difficult to leave - mostly because of what you give up, and the disruption in your life - but nobody is going to shoot you if you try. Socialist regimes larger than a kibbutz have always been established and maintained by force. Our current economic system is not perfect, but the results over decades are infinitely better than other systems - particularly socialism. https://fee.or…

The thing is: you guys are talking about two different things but using the same word. One is talking about Scandinavia and one is talking about The Khmer Rouge.

Re: Barclays scraps 'Big Brother' staff tracking system within one week

#132
post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does happen in the US, and in banks, and not just low-level employees. Palantir sells the service. It has been used by JP Morgan for a few years: https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2018-palantir-peter-thiel In LOTR the Palantir is used by Sauron to corrupt and subdue Saruman by displaying visions of terror. Coincidentally a Palantir employee in collaboration with Cambridge Analytica were instrumental in the Republ…

Wow. How do Palantir engineers sleep at night? Later in the article, it describes how LAPD uses Palantir software - tracking almost everyone in poor neighborhoods at all times. All of this use is completely without warrants, and the police know to avoid mentioning Palantir in court documents so that its use won't be challanged.

> Wow. How do Palantir engineers sleep at night?

Like other >99% of the engineers in the world.

Re: Barclays scraps 'Big Brother' staff tracking system within one week

#135

So, they basically treated people like low-level employees at a call center in the US? This sort of thing isn't actually new. Those cameras in retail stores are, first and foremost, used to track employee theft - including theft of company time spent talking to other employees. Are you a call center employee that has to go poop often that day or are 3 minutes late from break? Expect a call from HR for the bathroom br…

No, they treated them as slaves because they’re not people; they’re Human Resources.

These managers or execs are outside of this scrutiny. They’re the slave masters and they don’t see that the greatest wastage is amongst themselves.

This kind of capitalism is highly American and a product of its success through exploitation. America didn’t come to be without the slave trade.

Re: Barclays scraps 'Big Brother' staff tracking system within one week

#136
"Barclays said axing the tracking system was a response to "colleague feedback", but would not say if it was permanent."

Quietly put it in when the controversy has died down, and disable these notifications:

"and sent warnings to those spending too long on breaks."

Re: Barclays scraps 'Big Brother' staff tracking system within one week

#137
post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Except for the scale; to get equivalent results, you'd have to have thousands of people watching. Which is the only thing that matters. Sure, warrants aren't necessary, but the concept of mass, automated surveillance is so new that we simply haven't figured out what to do about it yet.

>Sure, warrants aren't necessary, but the concept of mass, automated surveillance is so new that we simply haven't figured out what to do about it yet. We haven't? It seems like we have: we're embracing it wholeheartedly. We're just careful to only use it (for now) on groups of people who don't have much power to push back on it.

So who is "we" here?

Re: Barclays scraps 'Big Brother' staff tracking system within one week

#138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, the business cares how much profits they make. If it was cost effective, it is easier to justify moving it to other stores.

That's my point. Businesses care only about profit, even when its clearly detrimental to everyone else. There's no consideration for happiness or quality of life and no ethic if you only chase profit. For how much we've been pushed to believe this is perfecly normal, to me it's insane.

You know what would quickly increase happiness and quality of life for a whole bunch of people? If you would just donate your entire life savings to charity tomorrow. Your not doing that is clearly detrimental to all those people you would have helped. Please consider happiness, quality of life, ethics, etc, and stop chasing profit.

Re: Barclays scraps 'Big Brother' staff tracking system within one week

#139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, the business cares how much profits they make. If it was cost effective, it is easier to justify moving it to other stores.

That's my point. Businesses care only about profit, even when its clearly detrimental to everyone else. There's no consideration for happiness or quality of life and no ethic if you only chase profit. For how much we've been pushed to believe this is perfecly normal, to me it's insane.

you guys are cynical but lets take this one step further. the real reason the OPs plan wasn't implemented was because some cto or ceo had stock or got a kick back from some surveillance company ;-)

Re: Barclays scraps 'Big Brother' staff tracking system within one week

#140
post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Sure, warrants aren't necessary, but the concept of mass, automated surveillance is so new that we simply haven't figured out what to do about it yet. We haven't? It seems like we have: we're embracing it wholeheartedly. We're just careful to only use it (for now) on groups of people who don't have much power to push back on it.

So who is "we" here?

Society, of course.

Some people may disagree with it, but the society at large is doing this things, either led by or approved by our political leaders, whom most of the citizens elect.

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