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WFH – Watched from Home: Office 365 and workplace surveillance creep (2022)

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Re: WFH – Watched from Home: Office 365 and workplace surveillance creep (2022)

#101

Post by moooo99 »

jupp0r wrote: post #70
geek_at wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> surveillance is here to stay in the United States. Europe has very strict rules about surveiling employees. Example: In Austria we are not allowed to use some of the functions that Azure-AD joined computers would be capable of because employers _might_ push remote control software the user hasn't agreed to

Germany famously just passed legislation that forces employers to record working hours for all employees.

That is a non-issue regarding privacy and the intention is to ensure compliance with employee protection laws capping the maximum weekly working time.

You write down when you started working and you write down when you stop. Some employers automatically subtract your legally required break time, some want you to enter it manually.

Re: WFH – Watched from Home: Office 365 and workplace surveillance creep (2022)

#102

Post by MrStonedOne »

Tyr42 wrote: post #36
heavyset_go wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Run it on a separate VLAN or on separate network hardware, as well.

So like, how does that work. I've got a pair of Asus routers with one acting as an access point (AI mesh). Would I need to buy new routers? Do I daisy chain the routers or can I reuse the wifi ap? Or put Merlin on my existing ones? I'm in tech but these network suggestions are all quite opaque to me.

[dead]

Re: WFH – Watched from Home: Office 365 and workplace surveillance creep (2022)

#103

Post by lima »

jupp0r wrote: post #70
geek_at wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> surveillance is here to stay in the United States. Europe has very strict rules about surveiling employees. Example: In Austria we are not allowed to use some of the functions that Azure-AD joined computers would be capable of because employers _might_ push remote control software the user hasn't agreed to

Germany famously just passed legislation that forces employers to record working hours for all employees.

Very annoyingly so - it's a nightmare for anyone with flexible hours.

Re: WFH – Watched from Home: Office 365 and workplace surveillance creep (2022)

#104

Post by vihren »

wizofaus wrote: post #76
mantas wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They ain't desirable. But who wants to pay them do nothing? Many people ain't happy to cover existing welfare. Increase welfare and even more people would feel it's unfair.

You can accuse UBI of many things but unfair it is clearly not, hence the "universal". Everyone gets the same amount - but the assumption is most will then choose to work and earn extra income on top of that.

How is it fair? You do give the same amount to everyone, but you do not take the same from everyone - you have to take more from those who chose to work. Hence the unfair part.

Re: WFH – Watched from Home: Office 365 and workplace surveillance creep (2022)

#105

Post by wizofaus »

hmmSceptical wrote: post #37
throwawaaarrgh wrote: post #20

Nearly 20 years ago we used to install monitoring software to tell if a user's mouse or keyboard hadn't been used in a while. More and more places use traffic inspection "for security". Desks now use sensors to tell when warm bodies are near. Doesn't matter whether you're working from office or in the home, surveillance is here to stay. Good businesses should only care if work is getting accomplished. Bad businesses…

> Bad businesses will continue to use draconian methods to try to squeeze productivity rather than foster it What about jobs that aren't creative like coding or graphic design? Some jobs are simply "sit in your chair and do work". The productivity metrics aren't speculative - they are measurable. You may argue "these are jobs for AI" - but realistically alot of jobs are a way off from this. Why shouldn't the "product…

> If you work at "big shipping co" and "box" 1 item a day and your colleagues do 100, should you not be fired?

If each of those boxes earns >100 times the profit, the boss would be kinda dumb to fire me. At any rate measuring that doesn't require surveillance software.

Re: WFH – Watched from Home: Office 365 and workplace surveillance creep (2022)

#107

Post by moooo99 »

wizofaus wrote: post #76
mantas wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They ain't desirable. But who wants to pay them do nothing? Many people ain't happy to cover existing welfare. Increase welfare and even more people would feel it's unfair.

You can accuse UBI of many things but unfair it is clearly not, hence the "universal". Everyone gets the same amount - but the assumption is most will then choose to work and earn extra income on top of that.

> but the assumption is most will then choose to work and earn extra income on top of that.

Also important to stress that most (limited) experiments suggest this assumption to bee true. UBI is not as radical as many people pretend it is. It is essentially a one size fits all solution replacing all existing welfare programs with, in many cases, better outcomes.

Re: WFH – Watched from Home: Office 365 and workplace surveillance creep (2022)

#108

Post by kbos87 »

ListenLinda wrote: post #92

IT can screen capture you computer without you knowing so this isn't new. Furthermore they can also see what application is in the foreground and OCR the captured image for more information. The possibilities to monitor you are endless.

The delta between possible and easy makes all the difference in the world in situations like this. A periodic static screenshot obtained through an onerous process is one thing. A “productivity dashboard” packaged and distributed for the intended use of end managers begs to help drive micromanagement and misconception.

Re: WFH – Watched from Home: Office 365 and workplace surveillance creep (2022)

#109

Post by notbeuller »

During covid when WFH, I received a legitimate looking SMS message with a link, so rather than clicking it, I curl --verbose'd it (and one subsequent redirect) before seeing it was an obvious phishing / troll. The next day, my VPN & SSO was disabled with instructions to contact corporate security. My use of curl had been detected and while they didn't accuse me of anything, they claimed that they wanted to make sure that I hadn't been hacked. I've never felt safe since then - I don't know how "deep" this spying goes. Yes it's their equipment, their network, etc. But I hate the way this makes me feel.

Re: WFH – Watched from Home: Office 365 and workplace surveillance creep (2022)

#110

Post by [deleted] »

bequanna wrote: post #87
LightBug1 wrote: post #59

I run a couple essential apps in a Virtualbox on my work laptop. Mainly due to compatability but more and more so due to privacy and articles like this. Am I right in thinking that anything that goes on inside that Virtualbox is 'relatively' private? I don't believe our IT department have the capacity to go beyond something like Office 365 Admin, but who knows. Thanks,

I’ve always thought it was a good rule that if you don’t want your employer to know about it, don’t do it on a company machine. Assume they can see everything.

[deleted]
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