A New York law taking effect May 7 requires private employers to provide written notice upon hiring to any employee who's subject to electronic monitoring. Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto/fizkes
Since the pandemic accelerated remote work, there’s been an uptick in the use of electronic monitoring tools to track employees’ performance and productivity, experts say.
Some workers’ rights groups have called it invasive with employees often not knowing they’re even being tracked or how the information’s being used.
New York has passed legislation that takes effect May 7 and requires private employers to provide written notice upon hiring to any employee who's subject to electronic monitoring, including their phone, email, and/or internet usage.
"It’s a step in the right direction," says Wilneida Negron, the Manhattan-based director of research and policy at Coworker.org, an online platform for workers to organize and advocate for workplace change.
But more needs to be done to ensure that workers’ have basic data and privacy protections, as well as avenues for pushing back on technologies they feel are intrusive, she says.
The proliferation of employee monitoring and other technologies used for everything from video surveillance to tracking keystrokes and even physical movement prompted Negron to compile a database of over 650 labor-focused technology products.
Of those, there are more than 170 employee monitoring products, says Negron, who published a report on this...
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