#workersurveillance — Public Fediverse posts

"The good news, for me at least, is that the computer thinks I have a nice personality. According to an app called MorphCast, I was, in a recent meeting with my boss, generally “amused,” “determined,” and “interested,” though—sue me—occasionally “impatient.” MorphCast, you see, purports to glean insights into the depths and vagaries of human emotion using AI. It found that my affect was “positive” and “active,” as opposed to negative and/or passive. My attention was reasonably high. Also, the AI informed me that I wear glasses—revelatory!

The bad news is that software now purports to glean insights into the depths and vagaries of human emotion using AI, and it is coming to watch you. If it isn’t already: Morphcast, for example, has licensed its technology to a mental-health app, a program that monitors schoolchildren’s attention, and McDonald’s, which launched a promotional campaign in Portugal that scanned app users’ faces and offered them personalized coupons based on their (supposed) mood. It is one of many, many such companies doing similar work—the industry term is emotion AI or sometimes affective computing.

Some products analyze video of meetings or job interviews or focus groups; others listen to audio for pitch, tone, and word choice; still others can scan chat transcripts or emails and spit out a report about worker sentiment. Sometimes, the emotion AI is baked in as a feature in multiuse software, or sold as part of an expensive analytics package marketed to businesses. But it’s also available as a stand-alone product, and the barrier to entry is shin-high: I used MorphCast at no cost, taking advantage of a free trial, and with no special software."

https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/2026/05/worker-surveillance-emotion-ai/687029/

#AI #EmotionAI #Surveillance #WorkerSurveillance #AffectiveComputing

VC money is fueling a global boom in worker surveillance tech

https://restofworld.org/2025/employee-surveillance-software-vc-funding/

#HackerNews #VCmoney #WorkerSurveillance #TechBoom #EmployeeMonitoring #PrivacyConcerns

VC money is fueling a global boom in worker surveillance tech

https://restofworld.org/2025/employee-surveillance-software-vc-funding/

#HackerNews #VCmoney #WorkerSurveillance #TechBoom #EmployeeMonitoring #PrivacyConcerns

VC money is fueling a global boom in worker surveillance tech

https://restofworld.org/2025/employee-surveillance-software-vc-funding/

#HackerNews #VCmoney #WorkerSurveillance #TechBoom #EmployeeMonitoring #PrivacyConcerns

VC money is fueling a global boom in worker surveillance tech

https://restofworld.org/2025/employee-surveillance-software-vc-funding/

#HackerNews #VCmoney #WorkerSurveillance #TechBoom #EmployeeMonitoring #PrivacyConcerns

VC money is fueling a global boom in worker surveillance tech

https://restofworld.org/2025/employee-surveillance-software-vc-funding/

#HackerNews #VCmoney #WorkerSurveillance #TechBoom #EmployeeMonitoring #PrivacyConcerns

"Workers should have the right to know which of their data is being collected, who it's being shared by, and how it's being used. We all should have that right. That's what the actors' strike was partly motivated by: actors who were being ordered to wear mocap suits to produce data that could be used to produce a digital double of them, "training their replacement," but the replacement was a deepfake.

With a Trump administration on the horizon, the future of the FTC is in doubt. But the coalition for a new privacy law includes many of Trumpland's most powerful blocs – like Jan 6 rioters whose location was swept up by Google and handed over to the FBI. A strong privacy law would protect their Fourth Amendment rights – but also the rights of BLM protesters who experienced this far more often, and with far worse consequences, than the insurrectionists.

The "we do it with an app, so it's not illegal" ruse is wearing thinner by the day. When you have a boss for an app, your real boss gets an accountability sink, a convenient scapegoat that can be blamed for your misery.

The fact that this makes you worse at your job, that it loses your boss money, is no guarantee that you will be spared. Rich people make great marks, and they can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent. Markets won't solve this one – but worker power can."

https://pluralistic.net/2024/11/26/hawtch-hawtch/#you-treasure-what-you-measure

#Work #WageSlavery #WorkerSurveillance #Bossware #Privacy #AI #DataProtection #FTC #USA

#Microsoft #WorkerSurveillance #CoPilotAI: "Microsoft’s Dynamics 365 Field Service technology uses AI to single out workers and closely monitor their performance, a new report says. The report, released by Austrian research institute Cracked Labs, raises questions about the integration of Microsoft’s Copilot AI into its platform for worker surveillance.

“The study shows that it is not only gig work firms or software from small, shady vendors that enable extensive worker monitoring and algorithmic management,” Wolfie Christl, a public-interest technology researcher and the author of the report, told 404 Media. “Microsoft software provides employers with similar functionality.”

The Dynamics 365 Field Service software is designed to help dispatchers manage a fleet of mobile workers, which Microsoft often refers to as “resources.” The system is usually used for services like machine maintenance, repair, cleaning, or home healthcare. Because of its optimization for managers, however, the report found that the software can have negative impacts on human workers in the field."

https://www.404media.co/how-a-microsoft-app-is-powering-employee-surveillance/