Employers increasingly use surveillance to monitor employees.By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: A sales executive in Central California is filing a lawsuit against her former employer claiming she was wrongfully terminated after uninstalling an app that enabled her employer to track her movements 24 hours a day, seven days a week — even when she was supposed to be off-the-clock.
Myrna Arias, a former Bakersfield sales executive for money transferring service Intermex, alleges her boss fired her shortly after she uninstalled a job-management app called Xora that she and her colleagues were required to use, reported Ars Technica.
The lawsuit alleges that when Arias and her coworkers asked whether Intermax would be monitoring their movements while off-duty, her superior, John Stubits admitted they would and even bragged he knew how fast Arias was driving at any given time.
Arias expressed that she had no issues with the app functioning during work hours, but objected to her being monitored when she was off-duty and complained that it constituted an invasion of privacy.
“She likened the app to a prisoner’s ankle bracelet and informed Stubits that his actions were illegal. Stubits replied that she should tolerate the illegal intrusion,” read the lawsuit.
The Guardian revealed that Arias was required to keep her phone’s power on “24/7” to answer phone calls from clients, and that she was “scolded” after uninstalling the app prior to being terminated.
Arias’ attorney, Gail Glick, said in a Monday e-mail to Ars Technica that the app allowed her client’s “bosses to see every move the employees made throughout the day,” and that Stubits “made it very clear that he was using the program to continuously monitor her, during company as well as personal time.”
Arias’ lawsuit seeks damages in excess of $500,000 to remedy lost earnings and wages, reported The Guardian, and as surmised by the documentation that was filed in state court: “This intrusion would be highly offensive to a reasonable person.”
Regarding eavesdropping technology readily available to employers, the Xora app may only be the tip of the iceberg, according to The Independent. Other apps, some of them with sales exceeding 1 million, boast that they give managers the facility to read their employee’s texts and listen in on their mobile phone calls.
Recently, British Columbia Information and Privacy Commissioner Elizabeth Denham issued an investigation report that found the Canadian district of Saanich was using employee monitoring software in violation of privacy rights.
While the district was not collecting GPS information, it was found to be wrongfully logging keystrokes, taking automated screenshots, and tracking all computer program activity.