WORK PLACE SURVEILLANCE

Assignment No-01

Group members Student No

1. V.P.N. Badungodage BM/2007/010

2. D.V.S. Mendis BM /2007/153

3. M.D.S. Mudannayaka BM/2007/156

4. W.G.I.L. Wijesinghe BM/2007/ 299

5. M.V.L.C.S. Karunarathna BM/2007/314

6. M.K.M.E.Perera BM /2007/180

7. W.D.S.suboda BM /2007/262

8. C H weerakon BM /2007/ 283

Subject t - Contemporary HRM

Course code - BHRM41172

Department of Human Resource Management

University of Kelaniya

Introduction to Surveillance.

Surveillance is the collection of data on a person, object or ‘target’ with the explicit intention

of influencing or managing what that ‘target’ does or where it goes.

Management’s ability to monitor, record and track employee performance, behaviors and

personal characteristics in real time (internet/ telephone monitoring) or as part of broader

organizational process.

Surveillance is the collecting of information about people with the purpose of controlling

their future behavior or actions with the information.

Businesses use workplace surveillance as a way of monitoring the activities of their

employees. Today's businesses often use information technology in their operations and

communications. Business leaders have concerns related to employee misuse of available

technologies. Technology appropriate use policies are being developed by some businesses as

a way to protect business interests. These policies define employee use that is appropriate and

other uses that are subject to scrutiny. Businesses are also implementing surveillance systems.

General principles for surveillance.

All workplace policies and procedures which may raise surveillance issues should be

assessed against the following five point checklist.

1. Openness

Workers are entitled to know what forms of surveillance are being used and what they are

being used for. Hidden surveillance or the use of the information it produces can destroy trust

in the workplace.

2. Consent

If a worker is to be the subject of a particular form of monitoring, he or she should have

specifically agreed to it, either through a clause in a contract or through a separate agreement.

3. Consultation

New forms of surveillance should not be introduced without meeting standards of procedural

fairness. Informing or consulting with unions and/or workers is the most appropriate means

of ensuring that surveillance policies are workable and fair.

4. Private spaces.

Workers should not be in fear of or subject to constant surveillance. All workers should be

guaranteed areas, means of communication and periods during the day in which they can be

sure that they will not be monitored.

5. Proportionality

A fair balance should be struck between the purposes of surveillance and the protection of

worker, privacy, dignity and autonomy. This means that surveillance should be (1) to meet a

legitimate aim (2) necessary to meet that aim and (3) the least harmful means for workers of

meeting that aim.

There is also increasing academic interest in the impact of work intensification through new

technologies in workplaces such as call centres, and the health and safety issues that can arise

for workers as a result. It may be that all e-mail and other policies should address this aspect

as well

Types of Surveillance

1. Covert Surveillance

"Surveillance is covert if and only if it is carried out in a manner that is calculated to ensure that the

persons who are subject to the surveillance are unaware that it is or may be taking place.Cannot

undertake Covert surveillance under any circumstance, without written authority of a covert

surveillance authority.

A covert surveillance authority will only authorize covert surveillance if there is just cause to

believe that there is a valid reason to believe that a wrong doing has occurred/ is occurring

2. Overt surveillance

This occurs where adequate notice has been given to the subject of the surveillance and the

subject is aware that he/she is being monitored

Must explicitly define; how and when and where surveillance will be undertaken, the purpose

of surveillance and the information collected. When implementing overt surveillance it

should excludes restrooms, bathrooms, change rooms etc & must display warnings at every

entry point at which surveillance is undertaken

It must not be used in a discriminate manner (age, sex, religion, Ethnicity).

Employers would need to comply with the Following eight legislative principles when

undertaking overt surveillance:

1. Overt surveillance should not be used in such a way that it breaches an individual’s

Reasonable expectation of privacy.

2. Overt surveillance must only be undertaken for an acceptable purpose.

3. Overt surveillance must be conducted in a manner which is appropriate for purpose.

4. Notice provisions shall identify the surveillance user.

5. Surveillance users must be accountable for their surveillance devices and the consequences

Of their use.

6. Surveillance users must ensure all aspects of their surveillance system are secure.

7. Material obtained through surveillance to be used in a fair manner and only for the purpose

Obtained.

8. Material obtained through surveillance must be destroyed within a specified period.

Methods of Surveillance

1. Telephones surveillance

Today the United States has at least 130 million cell phone users. All are subject to

increasingly precise tracking with cell phone surveillance technology. The infrastructure that

supports such tracking has evolved rapidly through a series of technical, legal, and political

mutations, all stemming from the choices of highly interested actors. The resulting

configuration of laws, networks, and corporate interests determines who is able to use the

phone system to gather information about the mobility, not only of individuals, but of the

population as a whole.

The telephone, is the most important piece of equipment a person conducting surveillance

uses. The telephone is one of the major communication medium you obtain and pass

information with.

Advantageous of Telephones surveillance

Telephone tapping 

Telephone tapping is the monitoring of telephone and Internet conversations by a third party,

often by covert means. The wiretap received its name because, historically, the monitoring

connection was an actual electrical tap on the telephone line. Legal wiretapping by

a government agency is also called lawful interception. Passive wiretapping monitors or

records the traffic, while active wiretapping alters or otherwise affects it

The official and unofficial tapping of telephone lines is widespread. In the United States for

instance, the Communications Assistance For Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) requires that

all telephone and VoIP communications be available for real-time wiretapping by Federal law

enforcement and intelligence agencies. Two major telecommunications companies in the U.S.

-- A AT&T and Verizon—have contracts with the FBI, requiring them to keep their phone

call records easily searchable and accessible for Federal agencies, in return for $1.8 million

dollars per year. Between 2003 and 2005, the FBI sent out more than 140,000 "National

Security Letters" ordering phone companies to hand over information about their customers'

calling and Internet histories. About half of these letters requested information on U.S.

citizens.

Video facility

In place of the video surveillance cameras currently installed on the exteriors of buildings, on

city-owned poles and in other public places, the security industry will instead install cellular

telephones ("digital radios"). Unlike video cameras, even those that are outfitted

with wireless transmitters, so-called "cell-phones" are fully integrated, multi-purpose devices.

They can be outfitted with tiny digital cameras that can take high-quality stills or moving

pictures, can be controlled by remote units, and can use microwaves to transmit images to

far-away locations almost immediately after taking them.

Example: - Mobitel

Features

Real-time video monitoring on your mobile phone & on your laptop

Recording and playback facility

Proprietary Multi-streaming video technology, TeleEye SMAC-Mvideo coder generates 5

independent video streams for superb recording and  optimal transmission with minimal

bandwidth utilization

Email/SMS notifications

Free mobile applications for a  wide array of mobile phones ranging from J2ME supported

phones to high end smart phones(IOS, Android, Symbian)

Digital Outputs for event triggering (e.g. Burglar alarm)

To collect location data

Mobile phones are also commonly used to collect location data. The geographical location of

a mobile phone (and thus the person carrying it) can be determined easily (whether it is being

used or not), using a technique known multilateration to calculate the differences in time for a

signal to travel from the cell phone to each of several cell towers near the owner of the phone.

A controversy has emerged in the United States over the legality of such techniques, and

particularly whether a court warrant is required. Records for one carrier alone (Sprint),

showed that in a given year federal law enforcement agencies requested customer location

data 8 million times

2. Biometric surveillance

We all know that ensuring the safety and security of the workplace is essential for all

employers. The difficulty for employers comes in finding ways to achieve this objective in an

efficient and cost-effective manner. Many different forms of security measures are available.

Hired security guards are highly visible deterrents to unauthorized access and theft, but can

be prohibitively expensive. Pass-card systems are readily available, but can be manipulated or

breached by wrong-doers with the technical know-how.

Some employers have also introduced biometric scanning technologies to limit and track

access to the workplace. Biometric scanners digitally scan unique physical characteristics

(examples include a person’s iris, fingerprint, or hand geometry) and therefore can limit

access to the workplace to only those authorized persons whose unique physical

characteristics are stored in the company’s computer system.

Biometric surveillance refers to technologies that measure and analyze human physical

and/or behavioral characteristics for authentication, identification, or screening

purposes. Examples of physical characteristics include fingerprints, DNA, and facial patterns.

Examples of mostly behavioral characteristics include gait (a person's manner of walking) or

voice.

Facial recognition is the use of the unique configuration of a person's facial features to

accurately identify them, usually from surveillance video. Both the Department of Homeland

Security and DARPA are heavily funding research into facial recognition

systems. The Information Processing Technology Office, ran a program known as Human

Identification at a Distance which developed technologies that are capable of identifying a

person at up to 500 ft. by their facial features.

Another form of behavioral biometrics, based on affective computing, involves computers

recognizing a person's emotional state based on an analysis of their facial expressions, how

fast they are talking, the tone and pitch of their voice, their posture, and other behavioral

traits. This might be used for instance to see if a person is acting "suspicious" (looking

around furtively, "tense" or "angry" facial expressions, waving arms, etc.).

A more recent development is DNA fingerprinting, which looks at some of the major markers

in the body's DNA to produce a match. The FBI is spending $1 billion to build a new

biometric database, which will store DNA, facial recognition data, iris/retina (eye) data,

fingerprints, palm prints, and other biometric data of people living in the United States. The

Los Angeles Police Department is installing automated facial recognition and license plate

recognition devices in its squad cars, and providing handheld face scanners, which officers

will use to identify people while on patrol.

3. Corporate surveillance

Corporate surveillance is a term that is used to describe any type of discreet monitoring of

activities within a business or within the industry associated with that business. When this

type of surveillance is utilized internally, the goal is usually to protect the interests of the

company. This is done by using various forms of employee monitoring to make sure all

policies and procedures are being followed, and that employees are conducting themselves

and their use of company property in a manner that is considered ethical and legal. In

situations that relate to monitoring the activities of major competitors, corporate

surveillance will typically involve monitoring media outlets as well as using technology to

stay abreast of any information in the public domain that relates to those competitors.

As an internal process, corporate surveillance often makes use of software that monitors the

use of computers by employees. Sometimes referred to as computer spyware, the purpose of

the software is to make sure the equipment and the links to the Internet are being utilized for

business rather than personal usage. Often, the corporate spyware makes it possible to access

emails sent and received, track searches conducted using various search engines, and identify

web sites that are visited. This type of activity is often considered necessary to maintain

productivity and make sure employees are focused on successfully completing tasks

associated with their job responsibilities.

Corporate surveillance is the monitoring of a person or group's behavior by a corporation.

The data collected is most often used for marketing purposes or sold to other corporations,

but is also regularly shared with government agencies. It can be used as a form of business

intelligence, which enables the corporation to better tailor their products and/or services to be

desirable by their customers. Or the data can be sold to other corporations, so that they can

use it for the aforementioned purpose. Or it can be used for direct marketing purposes, such

as the targeted advertisements on Google and Yahoo, where ads are targeted to the user of the

search engine by analyzing their search history and emails (if they use free webmail

services), which is kept in a database.

4. Internet surveillance

Is the active surveillance of the user’s Internet activities? When users operate a computer

on the Internet, a record of the sites that were visited and the operations that were

performed by the user can be generated by Internet surveillance software. Also known as

spyware this software is able to track the user’s activities and report it to the administrator.

The administrator can then report this to the employer with various techniques.

5. Video surveillance

Video monitoring is a commonplace method of deterring theft, maintaining security and

monitoring employees.  For example, a bank may utilize video monitoring to prevent or

collect evidence on a robbery. A company may also use video monitoring in a parking

garage as a security measure for employee safety.  

Employers may also use cameras to monitor employee productivity and prevent internal

theft. 

Uses of video surveillance

• Protection from the risks of internal and external theft

• Protection of premises from threats such as sabotage, arson and vandalism;

• Monitoring individual employee work performance (ie productivity);

• To improve customer service by observing peak periods and planning the

Allocation of staff throughout the day;

• To assist in staff training;

• To enhance health and safety standards;

• To ensure that employees comply with legal obligations;

• To protect employers from liability and unfair dismissal claims;

• To monitor production processes (including for machine malfunction);

• For a range of other purposes (e.g. investigation of compensation claims by

Employees – although this is often conducted outside the workplace);

6. Computer surveillance

The monitoring recording, by means of software or other equipment of the information input

or output, or other use, of a computer used by the employee.

Uses of computer surveillance

Preventing excessive personal use of computers

Employers want to ensure that employees are not wasting time by using their computers for

recreational or other personal purposes when they should be working – in particular, by

surfing the internet and sending personal emails

• Preventing bandwidth drain resulting from personal use of computers

Recreational use of the internet at work by employees ‘can also have a devastating effect on

a company’s bandwidth. Employees who download music, pay bills online, play games or

just browse the web impede the work-related activity of colleagues

• Preventing actions that may otherwise harm employer: e.g. leaking secrets

Employers also undertake computer surveillance to minimize the risk of employees viewing,

taking or leaking (intentionally or unintentionally) confidential information or trade secrets to

third parties, including competitors. In other words, to guard against the risk of employees

violating the employer’s privacy. Other ways in which Employee’ computer use has the

potential to harm their employer include defrauding the Business of funds and posting on the

internet, or circulating by email, views or Information that are damaging to the reputation of

the business.

• Protecting security of computer system from external threats

• Blocking Spam e-mails - Employers block Spam emails, which have been sent to

employees and which, amongst other things, can waste employees’ time and reduce

productivity.

• Performance monitoring and quality assurance

Computer surveillance may be used to monitor ‘the performance of employees, such as

Data entry operators, who spend the majority of their work time on a computer

The way in which Workplace Surveillance is regulated.

When considering the current situation in Sri Lanka, still there is no regulations developed

for ‘Workplace Surveillance’ but in countries like New South Wales and Australia, there are

separate acts passed by the relevant governments regarding the Workplace Surveillance.

Workplace video surveillance Act 1998 in New South Wales.

Generally, the Workplace video Surveillance Act

Prohibits the surveillance by employers of their employees at work except where employees

have been given notice or where the employer has a covert surveillance authority. Covert

surveillance authorities can only be issued by a Magistrate for the purpose of establishing

whether or not an employee is involved in any unlawful activity at work;

Applies to camera surveillance, computer surveillance and tracking surveillance.

Extends beyond the workplace to any place where an employee is working;

Prohibits surveillance in a change room, toilet facility or shower or other bathing

facility at a workplace;

Restricts and regulates the blocking by employers of emails and Internet access of

employees at work. In particular it prevents employers from blocking access to

emails or Internet sites because the content relates to industrial matters;

General notice requirements

Written (or emailed) notice must be given at least 14 days prior to any surveillance

commencing, indicating the kind of surveillance to be carried out (camera, computer

or tracking), how the surveillance will be carried out, when the surveillance will start

etc. For new employees notification must be given before they start work.

Cameras used for the surveillance must be clearly visible in the place where the

surveillance is taking place. Signs must also notify people that they may be under

surveillance in that place and must be clearly visible at each entrance to that place.

There must be a notice clearly visible on the vehicle or other thing that is being

tracked, indicating that the vehicle or thing is the subject of tracking surveillance.

Additional computer surveillance notice requirements

Computer/Internet/email surveillance of an employee must not be carried out unless

the surveillance is carried out in accordance with a policy of the employer on

computer surveillance of employees at work. The employee must be notified in

advance of that policy

Monitoring and recording of the use of a computer such as taking back-ups, for instance, were

to be used to conduct surveillance to facilitate the reading of somebody's emails that would

need to be notified to employees; otherwise it would be considered to be covert surveillance.

Emails: The Act also places restrictions on the blocking of emails. Employers will be

required to give notice to an employee on any occasion when an e-mail message sent by or to

the employee is blocked.

Workplace Privacy Act 2011 in Australia.

The Australian Capital Territory has introduced workplace surveillance laws as a response to

concerns that security cameras and other monitoring devices were being

installed in workplaces without the knowledge of employees.    

The Workplace Privacy Act 2011 (ACT) (the Act) will operate in a similar manner to the

New South Wales regime, which has been in place since 2005. The Explanatory Statement

provides that the object of the Act is to ensure that employers inform and consult with

employees on any surveillance that takes place in the workplace, specifically any optical, data

and tracking surveillance.

In order to conduct ordinary surveillance of a workplace, the Act requires employers to go

through a process of notification and consultation prior to implementing the surveillance. The

notification must outline the manner in which surveillance will be conducted and what

those surveillance records may be used for. The notification may take the form of a

'surveillance policy' that is issued to all employees, or individual notices. A consultation

period of 14 days must be in place following the initial notice of surveillance.

The Act also provides that an employer may make an application to the Magistrates Court for

covert surveillance, where they can demonstrate:

a reasonable suspicion that an employee is engaging in unlawful activity

that covert surveillance is necessary to prevent the unlawful activity, and

the covert surveillance is conducted by a nominated responsible person authorized by

the Magistrate.

The Act prohibits any form of surveillance in areas where there is a 'heightened expectation

of privacy', such as prayer rooms, bathrooms or change rooms.

The provisions relating to prohibited surveillance commenced on 10 March 2011. The

remainder of the Act commences operation on 24 August 2011.

Advantages & Disadvantages of Work place Surveillance

Advantages

1. Discourage many wrong doings and it gives employers the opportunity to spot check how

their employees work. This can be useful to increase the productivity and, at the same time

management can stop inappropriate and harmful behavior .

2. Ensure workplace safety and security by eliminating theft and losses to the organization.

3. It will help to ensure company procedures, management supervision are being implementing

smoothly.

4. Reducing exposure to liability risk. Normally significant legal obligations fall upon all

employers. For an example employer may be liable for employee misconduct such as

computer hacking, violation of security laws, workplace harassment and discrimination.

Surveillance Technologies can prevent those issues in to some extent.

5. Surveillance can be used to control the cost. When employee download irrelevant material off

the internet, call friends or steal stationary they add to their employer’s cost. Work place

surveillance is an effective tool for eliminating these unnecessary expenses.

6. Employees remain safe and focus on their work

7. Eliminate leaking of confidential material.

8. Recover important communications that have been lost. If an employee’s work was lost due

to a power outage, a problem with PC or a mistake now it will always be logged and can

retrieved safely.

Disadvantages

1. Continuous observing can lead to distrust and resentment. It will be a reason for

demotivation. Using surveillance to monitor employee may damage mutual trust between

employees and management creating suspicion and tension in the workplace. It will lead to

increased industrial dispute.

2. Have to bear high cost to purchase Surveillance equipments

3. Difficult to protect Employee privacy. Workplace surveillance can serve as a tool for the

employer to illegally gain access to Intellectual Property

Practical examples

Surveillance practices at Logiwiz

Telephone calls Monitoring

The system itself checking and monitoring the outgoing calls from the extensions.

Automatically it records the outgoing calls which exceeds the time bound of 8 minutes.

Those details are sum up in a report type monthly bill and circulate to the relevant department

and all the managerial staff members.

E-Mail Monitoring

Frequency of using e-mail facility also checking across the system and the capacity of

maximum documents attachment is limited to 2 MG. When the user exceeds the given

capacity, the details are automatically store in the system and will monitor and follow up at

the end of the month.

CCTV Monitoring

The employees behavior is monitoring through out the work time and store in the system for

any investigation and security system always keep their eyes on to the recordings.

Web Browsing Limitations

Web browsing accesses are denied for some selected entertainment web sites like Facebook,

Yahoo etc

Location Monitoring

There are more than 10 Logiwiz locations island wide. Therefore specially appointed group

visits these locations randomly and gather details based on wide scope of criteria.

Monthly Night work Roster

Security officers do walk around the warehouse after the end of general work time schedule

and seal the working area and warehouse until it open in next day morning

Practical issues of surveillance

Totalitarianism

Programs such as the Total Information Awareness programs have led many groups to fear

that society is moving towards a state of mass surveillance with severely limited personal,

social, political freedoms.

Practices like COINTELPRO also highly impact on individual’s freedom and privacy. This is

stands for Counter Intelligence Program) and this was a series of covert, and often

illegal, projects conducted by the United States FBI aimed at surveilling, infiltrating,

discrediting, and disrupting domestic political organizations.

Some point to the blurring of lines between public and private places, and the privatization of

places traditionally seen as public (such as shopping malls and industrial parks) as illustrating

the increasing legality of collecting personal information.

 Traveling through many public places such as government offices is hardly optional for most

people, yet consumers have little choice but to submit to companies' surveillance

practices. Surveillance techniques are not created equal; among the

many biometric identification technologies, for instance, face recognition requires the least

cooperation. Unlike automatic fingerprint reading, which requires an individual to press a

finger against a machine, this technique is subtle and requires little to no consent.

Psychological/social effects

Some critics, such as, believe that in addition to its obvious function of identifying and

capturing individuals who are committing undesirable acts, surveillance also functions to

create in everyone a feeling of always being watched, so that they become self-policing. This

allows the State to control the populace without having to resort to physical force, which is

expensive and otherwise problematic.

Privacy

Numerous civil rights groups and privacy groups oppose surveillance as a violation of

people's right to privacy.

Legislative proceedings such as those that took place during the Church Committee, which

investigated domestic intelligence programs such as COINTELPRO, have also weighed the

pros and cons of surveillance.

How HR Manager can intervene in surveillance?

In many ways HR manager can intervene in surveillance. Basically the purpose might be

influencing, managing, directing, or protecting of individuals and groups. But in some

scenarios surveillance can create positive effects and sometimes negative, due to its

ambiguity. Therefore Employees may think it is threat to their privacy & dignity.

Due to surveillance, there is a probability of emerging conflicts between top management and

employees. In such situations, HR manager should be responsible to play an impartial role

between the two parties, since both the parties are equally valuable to the company.

It is important to develop a surveillance policy within the company and update company’s

standing instructions according to the policy. In here HR manager can specifically mention

the purpose of their surveillance policy and what are they trying to achieve through this kind

of a policy. In most of the times, objectives are to increase productivity, reduce wastage and

improve work place security. HR manager should also make sure that he/she is effectively

communicating the requirement of a surveillance policy within the company. There should be

also a room for questions which would further clarify the policy and HR manager as the

responsible person should always ensure that everything is communicated effectively to their

audience.

The purpose of the policy should be always evolved around directing and protecting

employees in the organization. Within a hassle-free, protective atmosphere, the overall

effective and efficiency is higher. Therefore through a written agreement of policy HR can

obtain an opportunity to monitor employees without harming their privacy.

Creating awareness is an extremely important stage when introducing this kind of a new

policy to the company. Therefore HR manager should organize awareness programmes with

regards to the surveillance policy in order to demonstrate practically how it works without

harming their privacy. In here also effective communication plays a vital role. After a

thorough analysis HR manager can decide the way they should target each audience together

with ideal strategies in communicating the policy.