The "Internet Behavior Management Software" hotly debated on the Internet: a management tool or a privacy tool?
The Paper Intern Reporter He Peiyun Reporter Liao Yan Intern Hu Yuanyuan
Recently, news about Zhihu layoffs has been leaked online, and then some netizens pointed out that Zhihu has installed a "behavioral awareness system", which can monitor employees' online behavior and analyze whether employees have a tendency to leave.
Zhihu responded that it has never installed and used the network transmission behavior perception system, and will not enable similar software tools in the future.
The incident subsequently sparked discussions on the phenomenon of "enterprises adopting software to manage employee network behavior."
For what purpose do businesses use such software and how?
Does it violate employee privacy?
On February 15, The Paper (www.thepaper.cn) interviewed network information security experts, lawyers, and scholars of science and technology ethics to answer your questions.
A practitioner in the network security industry introduced that companies use such "Internet behavior management" software to deter employees by worrying about the leakage of corporate data.
He bluntly said that such software would violate the personal privacy of employees.
Some lawyers said that the employer can use this kind of management software to a limited extent with the knowledge of the employee for management purposes. If it invades the employee's private domain, it is a tort.
At the same time, this real-time and all-round monitoring model has aroused the concern of scholars who pay attention to science and technology ethics. Between the basic rights of people as subjects and the rights and interests of the collective, where should privacy be biased?
Under the current situation that such technologies have been widely used, how should the use of technologies be regulated?
Zhihu monitors employee turnover intentions, but Zhihu denies it
A picture of the system background posted on the Internet shows that an employee surnamed Ju visited the job search website 23 times, delivered his resume 9 times, and had 254 chat records containing keywords.
Some netizens said that Zhihu installed a behavior-aware system to monitor employees’ Internet access, and learned of their behaviors such as browsing recruitment websites and submitting resumes, in order to analyze whether employees have the tendency to leave.
Subsequently, Zhihu denied the installation of a “sensing system for monitoring employee behavior.”
A Zhihu staff member told The Paper on the afternoon of February 14 that after verification, it was found that the source of the incident was that a netizen posted a screenshot of a software system suspected of monitoring employee resignation on the Internet, which was misinterpreted by some people and associated with Zhihu. almost on the body.
The staff member said: "We hereby declare that Zhihu has never installed and used the behavior perception system mentioned on the Internet, and will not enable similar software tools in the future. We have never touched the screenshots of the system on the Internet, so we will not use it. know its authenticity."
"In particular, it is necessary to declare that the illegal collection of personal information security is a serious departure from Zhihu's values, and we have always been firmly opposed to such systems." The aforementioned staff emphasized.
The aforementioned behavior perception system is said to be developed by the listed company Sangfor Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as: Sangfor).
According to the company's official website, Sangfor was established in 2000. According to the annual report released by Sangfor in 2020, its network security business revenue was 3.349 billion yuan, accounting for 61.35% of the total revenue.
Peng Mei News noticed that Sangfor’s official website introduced a product called “Internet Behavior Management”, with functions including Internet behavior audit, illegal Internet behavior management and control, enterprise information leakage prevention, Internet traffic control, and work efficiency analysis.
According to the introduction of the work efficiency analysis function, it can intelligently analyze and predict work efficiency based on the dynamics of online behavior, so that enterprises can take timely measures to reduce losses.
Industry insiders: mainly used to improve work efficiency and protect information security
With the fermentation of public opinion, such technologies and products that monitor the online behavior of corporate employees have entered the public eye, triggering discussions among netizens, and many people questioned the risk of leakage of employees' personal privacy.
For what purpose are such technologies used?
How does the product work?
In what range is it used?
Li Shaopeng, founder of Shushi Consulting and an expert of China Cyberspace Security Association, introduced to The Paper that around 2000, with instant messaging software such as QQ and MSN, software for managing employees' online behavior has become popular.
He said that this kind of network-wide behavior management product was originally called SWG (web security gateway) abroad, mainly to prevent employees from bringing viruses online and causing external intrusions, and domestically, it has become Internet behavior management.
According to Li Shaopeng, the use of online behavior management software is mainly in private enterprises, and there are relatively few cases in public institutions and state units.
He explained that some companies do not want employees to do things unrelated to work during working hours, and worry about employees chatting, posting, shopping, watching videos, etc. during working hours, they will use such behavior management software to monitor employees' online behavior. .
But in Li Shaopeng's view, "It is normal for (enterprises to adopt) the operation and maintenance management model." Li Shaopeng said that companies using such software generally inform employees in advance, the main purpose is to deter employees.
Of course, there are also a few cases where the company does not inform employees, but directly monitors the behavior of employees, and then takes measures.
Regarding the operation mechanism of the online behavior management product, Li Shaopeng introduced that as long as employees surf the Internet, network traffic will be generated.
By setting some detected keywords, protocols, specific websites, etc. on the traffic, you can find out whether it is related to outreach work.
For example, employees often send resumes to recruitment websites, and companies can doubt whether employees want to change jobs.
In addition, the information captured by the online behavior management product can be set. For example, if the company sets up a fixed monitoring website, if the employee accesses it, the browsing records such as text and email will be captured, but third-party communication tools generally cannot be used by grab.
For example, WeChat App has its own encryption mechanism.
According to a previous report by the Workers' Daily, You Jing, who worked in a private enterprise in Jinan, Shandong, used an office computer to download game software and was warned by the company's technical department over the phone.
"At that time, the department leader was holding a video conference, and the technical department warned me that the network bandwidth was occupied, which affected the video conference. If it was serious, it would also be reported to the personnel department." She said that the employee handbook did list "no work that is not allowed to do it." things", but did not expect to be "caught".
"This is a common traffic distribution management in Internet behavior management." He Zhe was engaged in product research and development in a leading company that provides Internet behavior management services for enterprises.
He revealed that online behavior management products generally include hardware and software, with basic functions such as identity authentication, application permission control, data analysis, and security protection.
A person familiar with online behavior management products also told The Paper that the essence of such products is to prevent information leakage within the enterprise.
Scholars recommend compliance with ethical norms to protect employee privacy
"Some people think that employees' working hours belong to the company, but at any time, people have the basic right to be a free subject." Wen Xianqing, associate professor at the Institute of Artificial Intelligence Moral Decision Making of Hunan Normal University, believes that from the perspective of science and technology ethics , it is inappropriate to conduct all-round real-time monitoring of employees going to work.
He pointed out that compared with traditional enterprise management behaviors (such as clocking in at work), software monitoring is real-time and covers the whole process.
"In this way, the space for interpretation of behavior at a certain point in time will become larger, and it will become the monitoring of employees as a subject of rights, which will damage their basic freedom and rights as a personality. For example, if you drink a cup of coffee occasionally, is it possible to become a Evidence of sabotage?"
He believes that the question that should be discussed in this topic is where people place the right to privacy, whether it is attached to other rights, such as the safety or benefit of the collective or business, or to the fundamental rights of the individual.
He pointed out that online behavior monitoring is not only a problem of enterprise management, but also involves the basic personal rights of employees, whether the rights of enterprises and employees are equal, and so on.
"In the current situation where such software has been widely used, we have to settle for the next best thing and require it to abide by some norms of technology ethics, such as informing employees of the existence of surveillance and the use of data used by enterprises." Wen Xianqing said.
Regarding the use of such technologies in the future, Wen Xianqing believes that at the national level, from the perspective of basic human rights, respect employees' rights to freedom, privacy, and security as individuals, and formulate monitoring policies and systems in industries and enterprises. , to specify the scope of its authority.
Second, if technical tools are used to monitor employee behavior, legislation should guide companies to formulate a set of rules that clearly stipulate the collection, dissemination, preservation, and deletion of employee data.
Finally, the enterprise itself should be equipped with departments to handle related matters.
Xie Xiaoyun, deputy dean and professor of the School of Management of Zhejiang University, said in an interview with Workers Daily that many studies have proved that digital monitoring systems will damage employees' work initiative, reduce employees' job satisfaction, and cause negative emotional experience. Wait.
He suggested that when designing assessment indicators for digital management, enterprises should pay more attention to ethics, pay attention to protecting the privacy of employees, and avoid the negative effects of digital management.
Enterprises' use of online behavior management products is not without legal risks.
Ding Jinkun, a lawyer from Shanghai Dabang Law Firm, said that according to Article 1032 of the Civil Code, no organization or individual may infringe on the privacy of others by means of spying, intrusion, disclosure or disclosure.
Ding Jinkun said that for management purposes, employers can use this kind of management software to a limited extent with the knowledge of employees to prevent employees from deserting or revealing company secrets.
Generally, this software can only be used for public affairs, within a limited scope, and cannot invade the private areas of employees, otherwise it is an infringement and must bear legal responsibility.
Employers are obliged to protect employees' privacy and not infringe.
For such incidents, the labor inspection department should intervene in the investigation and order the employer to reasonably use software to manage employees in accordance with the law.
Zhao Liangshan, a senior partner of Shaanxi Hengda Law Firm and a well-known public welfare lawyer, also believes that if an enterprise's behavior violates employees' privacy rights, according to the "Civil Code", an enterprise should bear civil tort liability to employees, for example, stop the infringement and make amends. Apologize, compensate for damages, etc.
Accordingly, employees can file lawsuits to safeguard their legitimate rights and interests.