The explosion of teleworking due to the coronavirus crisis encourages many companies to verify that their employees are truly at work, with increasingly sophisticated techniques.
With widespread teleworking, there is an upsurge in employee copying software. We want to be sure that they really work and that they don't consider themselves on vacation.
They are called ActivTrak, InterGuard, Teramind, Desktime or InnerActiv… These are software programs that spy on employees and then assess their productivity. Their sales have exploded in recent weeks.
They are able, for example, to record everything that has been typed on the keyboard, to know how much time has been spent on an application, how many emails have been sent, to whom, etc. In principle, they are used to identify teams that are overwhelmed in order to be able to relieve them. Or to enforce security rules (an employee who hangs out on a pedophile site, or who tries to exfiltrate sensitive information). But at the moment, we mainly use them to check that those who telecommute are doing their job well.
But is it legal to spy on employees?
Yes, provided you notify in advance. A bank, for example, sent an email to all of its employees to report that a snitch would now take screenshots every ten minutes to unmask, to quote, those "who take unfair advantage of telework". Another forces its teams to remain permanently connected on video. Like this, managers are sure to keep an eye on them.
As you said, these are rather Orwellian management methods. But they only reveal the main obstacles to telework: the lack of confidence and the difficulty of managing teams remotely, especially when it is necessary to measure their performance.