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The scope of workplace surveillance exploded during the pandemic as millions of workers turned their homes into offices. Some managers, accustomed to keeping tabs on their employees by walking past their desks, had to improvise by installing software on corporate laptops to monitor the keystrokes, mouse movement, and screen activity of their remote workforce.
This virtual intrusion is largely unregulated, but newly introduced California legislation would put some guardrails on the practice. This week, California Assemblymember Ash Kalra introduced the Workplace Technology Accountability Act that would require employers to tell workers that their data is being collected.
“There’s no doubt that technology has proven to be a very good thing in terms of productivity, efficiency, and data collection,” Kalra told Fortune, noting that the bill does not seek to limit or ban any technologies. “However, employers have also been using technology to overreach.”
The California Chamber of Commerce and other business interest groups opposed the bill when it was introduced in committee. They cited the excessive burden of disclosures for companies, especially small ones, to comply with the law.
Employers leveraging data in the workplace long precedes the pandemic, but in the past two years the practice has vastly increased. Kalra says the bill is long...
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