Article by Bianca Gay, EFA Board member.
Disturbing revelations have emerged that compliance training company SafeTrac covertly activated the microphones on employees’ laptops while they were working from home and recorded conversations in the name of monitoring productivity.
Ironically, SafeTrac’s core business is advising companies on how to adhere to the law. Yet, they may have broken the law themselves by covertly surveilling their employees through their use of an employee monitoring software called Teramind, a matter currently under investigation by the Victoria Police.
While many would agree that turning on an employee’s microphone is just plain wrong, it’s a harsh reminder that such invasions have become far too normalised, and SafeTrac is surely not the only company crossing this line.
Surveillance in the home
Our homes are meant to be our safest and most intimate spaces. But the surge in working from home since the COVID-19 pandemic, combined with a surveillance-heavy culture where Australia ranks first in the world in using technology to monitor employees, means this boundary is eroding fast.
Recording conversations taking place in the home is certain to go far beyond measuring productivity and is likely to capture sensitive details such as about someone’s mental health, religious or political views, financial situation, sexuality, or relationships.
Doing so not only invades employees’ privacy but may also violate the privacy of spouses, housemates, visitors, and, perhaps most disturbingly, children.
Suspecting that you are being surveilled in this way can lead to anxiety, hypervigilance, and paranoia among employees, in addition to being disastrous for employee morale. Ultimately, it creates a serious psychosocial hazard in the workplace, something which SafeTrac themselves offer courses in managing.
So, where does the law land?
With the exception of NSW and the ACT, most states in Australia have no comprehensive legislation on workplace surveillance. This does not exist at the federal level either.
This particular case is thus under investigation to determine whether SafeTrac breached general surveillance laws in Victoria, a rare scenario in employment settings that highlights the serious nature of it, and serves as a test of how existing laws apply at work.
The Privacy Act 1988, an outdated piece of legislation that EFA advocates needs stronger reform, contains exemptions for employee data in private companies. The Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) may apply to some data recorded through monitoring, but these protections are limited and inconsistently enforced.
What needs to change?
Currently, very little protection exists for Australian workers despite the widespread use of employee surveillance across most companies. At EFA, we believe that privacy is a fundamental right, and signing an employment contract should never mean having to forgo any expectation of privacy, especially within your own home.
We urgently need specific federal laws that:
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- Limit the types of monitoring and surveillance that employers can deploy on employees
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- Require informed consent before any monitoring begins, supported by clear, detailed policies that justify why the surveillance is necessary
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- Mandate that employers be transparent about exactly what data is collected, how it’s used and stored, for how long, and whether automated systems or AI are involved in monitoring or related decision-making
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- Include special protections for employees that work from home which protect the privacy and sanctity of employees’ living spaces
Until then, expect to see more shocking cases like this one, and, in the meantime, perhaps consider turning off your work devices when not in use.
Image source: Unsplash