Report: Privacy Risks of Employee Surveillance Software

UPDATED 3 August 2021 09:00 GMT to incorporate latest demand data, for October 2020 through Jun 2021, including details of a new spike in demand. Previously updated 18 November 2020 with June-September 2020 data

Key Findings

Global demand for employee monitoring software increased by:
- 87% in April 2020 compared with monthly average prior to the pandemic, following an initial 7% bump in March
- 71% in May 2020 versus pre-pandemic levels
Second wave of demand: 63% average increase since March 2021 compared to pre-pandemic average. This is a 24% increase compared to nine months prior.
New normal: 58% more interest in employee surveillance since pandemic declared than before
Most popular surveillance tools: Hubstaff, Time Doctor, FlexiSPY
Eight in 10 of the most in-demand companies incentivize long-term use

Introduction

A third of the U.S. workforce has shifted to remote work as a result of the pandemic, according to a survey conducted by MIT.^[1]

Fearful this could lead to a drop in productivity, employers have turned to remote monitoring tools to ensure their staff work effectively from home.

From covert webcam access to random screenshot monitoring, these products are capable of recording almost everything an employee does on their computer.

The rapid increase of these invasive programs risks setting new standards of workplace surveillance and dramatically undermining employees’ right to privacy.

While data from March 2020 shows a slight increase in demand, 7% over the full month, it wasn’t until April that the impact of lockdown measures had fully taken effect. In response, demand for employee monitoring tools surged by 87% in April then remained 71% above the pre-pandemic average the following month, in May.

Despite widespread, if temporary, easing of restrictions in the months that followed, demand for these intrusive tools barely diminished. In recent months, it has actually increased once again.

Demand has been 63% higher than before the pandemic since March 2021 following a period of nine months where it had hovered at around a 50% increase.

Chart showing month by month increase in demand for employee surveillance software compared to the pre-pandemic monthly average

Previous international crises have shown that once heightened surveillance measures are introduced they are often never reversed.^[2]

The companies behind these programs also do their best to guarantee that their products become permanent fixtures of the modern workplace. Eight out of the 10 most in-demand companies encourage long-term use by offering annual price incentives and lifetime purchasing options. Only Time Doctor and Crossover do not actively promote annual price incentives on their websites.

The pandemic has led to a huge rise in the range and sophistication of surveillance technologies being adopted around the world and, as remote work looks set to continue for the foreseeable future, invasive employee surveillance may be here to stay.

“There is something depressing about the idea that full-grown adults must be subjected to routine surveillance of their activities in order to hold the jobs necessary to pay their bills and provide for their families.” – ACLU^[3]

What are Employers Looking For?

The following table shows the five queries with the highest volume of internet searches since social restrictions began around the world, following the declaration of a global pandemic in March 2020.

The percentage difference columns are based on that period’s search volume compared to the average monthly searches in the preceding year.

As lockdowns came into force around the world, largely in the second half of March, interest in employee surveillance software started to increase. Slowly at first and then soaring in April, demand for the software remained well elevated during May. Over the ensuing months, that demand settled but at a much higher level than before the start of the pandemic.

Since March 2021 however there has been a sustained upswing in demand once more for employee surveillance tools.

After a nine month period where demand was 51% higher on average than before the pandemic, it jumped to 64% in March. Demand has remained on average at 63% higher than pre-pandemic levels since then, a 24% increase compared to the preceding nine months.

The market for employee surveillance software existed long before the global pandemic of course and much of the increased demand was focused around already dominant terms and phrases.

“Employee monitoring software”, for example, was by far the most popular search term before the pandemic and more than doubled in volume in April.

What’s most interesting however, is that “how to monitor employees working from home” was the second most popular overall phrase in April, despite being barely used just the previous month. The surge in popularity of such an open-ended phrase like this reveals how unprepared many companies were for the abrupt shift to mass home-working.

As might be expected, the phrase has dropped in popularity over time, only to be overtaken by “free employee monitoring software”.

This is a disturbing development as it suggests increasing numbers of employers wishing to spy on their staff who aren’t even prepared to pay for the privilege.

While they weren’t the most popular in absolute terms, queries containing the phrase “working from home” had much bigger relative increases than those relating to “remote work”, a phrase which suggests a more permanent working model.

For example, the query “work from home monitoring tools” increased by over 5,000% in April and remains over 1,000% higher over the period of entire pandemic to date compared to the months before.

Similarly, “work from home monitoring software” surged over 4,000% in April and remains almost 1,400% above the baseline over the pandemic period as a whole.

The radical shift away from office-working has clearly made employers nervous about a reduction in productivity and its potential impact on their business. Greater surveillance, however, may actually reduce long-term productivity.

“Research suggests that when companies monitor an employee’s every move, they signal distrust, which can lead to employee disengagement. Disengaged employees are less productive.” – Behavioural Scientist^[4]

Employee Surveillance Tools

The following table shows the 10 employee surveillance companies with the highest volume of internet searches since lockdowns began. The percentage difference columns are based on that month’s search volume compared to the average monthly searches in the preceding year.

Over the initial months of the pandemic, Time Doctor was the most in-demand option at the peak of employer interest in April when interest in the tool tripled in comparison to pre-pandemic levels. This caused it to jump from third to the most in-demand tool above its previously more popular rivals Hubstaff and FlexiSPY.

Over time however, Hubstaff has re-established its dominant position with the highest overall demand between March and April, at a monthly average 44% higher than before the pandemic.

Overall, our findings show that the employee surveillance market is a very concentrated one, with the top three tools accounting for over 60% of the global demand.

WorkPuls experienced the highest relative increase in demand, with a 394% rise since the start of the pandemic, followed by DeskTime which experienced a 174% increase.

Not all of these tools offer the same functionalities and some are considerably more invasive than others.

What can employee surveillance tools actually do?

The following table shows the 26 most popular employee surveillance tools and their respective functionalities.

Our analysis of 26 of the most popular employee monitoring companies revealed the following:

81% offer keystroke logging
61% provide Instant Messaging monitoring
65% send User Action Alerts
38% are capable of remote control takeover

Keystroke Logging

Found in 81% of the surveillance tools, keystroke logging is a highly intrusive feature that allows employers to view every click, touch of the keyboard, and conversation of their staff, who may not even realise that it’s happening
An example of just how far this can intrude into one’s privacy, the software offered by Work Examiner boasts the ability to “capture the passwords typed in many programs and websites” with their keystroke logging feature.^[5]

Screenshot from Work Examiner website promoting key logging features.

Instant Message (IM) Monitoring

IM monitoring allows bosses to monitor their staff’s private messages on popular social media chat platforms, and even on encrypted platforms such as Whatsapp.
More worryingly, products such as Aware’s Spotlight tool, offer AI-driven behavioral analysis that tracks changes in mood, tone and attitude across all forms of conversations on a users’ device.^[6]
“Conversation Health” of their workers are simplistically ranked out of 100, subject to real-time trend insights into how their employees’ conversations are going at any given point.

User Action Alerts

A user action alert notifies employers when an undesirable behaviour is occurring, allowing them to follow-up with monitoring or intervention if deemed necessary.
For example, Teramind’s software can disable private conversations from continuing if a pre-selected keyword deemed as “inappropriate” triggers an alert.^[7]
Behavioral alerts can also be set up as to when an employee may be trying to access an “unproductive” website, copy sensitive files or even being idle for a set amount of time.

Screenshot from Teramind website showing Instant Messaging monitoring features.

Remote Control Takeover

The most intrusive intervention offered in employee monitoring products. It allows an employer to access their workers’ device(s) and remotely take-over all functionality.
This facilitates multiple actions that may (or may not) come as a response to a user action alert such as:

Remote installation of software
Removal of employee’s access to sensitive company files and documents
Remote access to accounts, chat conversations, emails, personal files, calendar, contact list
Settings change to enable real-time webcam/audio surveillance of their staff
Blocking access to certain websites and applications
Shutdown or restart a worker’s device at any given time

NetVizor prides itself on its software’s controversial capacity to enable such a takeover without the employee’s permission, and “operate entirely in stealth; that is, it’s nearly invisible to the consumer.”^[8]

Screenshot from Netvizor site showing Remote Control Takeover features.

Methodology

Using our global monitoring data, we analyzed over 200 terms related to employee surveillance software, taking into account both generic and brand specific queries.

We calculated pre-pandemic demand based on the average monthly internet search volume between March 2019 and February 2020 inclusive. This provided a baseline figure with which we could compare demand during the period of global lockdowns and social restrictions in the subsequent months of March 2020 to June 2021.

About Top10VPN

We’re an internet security and digital rights firm specialized in reviewing VPN services. We analyze and recommend reliable VPNs to visitors from all over the world.

We also research and investigate digital rights, security and privacy matters to raise awareness of issues affecting our audience.

Additional research by Christine O’Donnell

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References

^{[1] https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/review?uri=urn%3Aaaid%3Ascds%3AUS%3A25ef03e6-a4f7-4084-aa25-40807e3d66fa#pageNum=2 ↩}

^{[2] https://edition.cnn.com/2020/05/16/tech/surveillance-privacy-coronavirus-npw-intl/index.html ↩}

^{[3] https://www.aclu.org/blog/national-security/your-boss-shouldnt-read-your-email ↩}

^{[4] https://behavioralscientist.org/the-paradox-of-employee-surveillance/ ↩}

^{[5] https://www.workexaminer.com/features/ ↩}

^{[6] https://www.awarehq.com/spotlight ↩}

^{[7] https://www.teramind.co/features/instant-message-monitoring ↩}

^{[8] https://www.netvizor.net/features.htm ↩}

Employee Surveillance Software Demand up 58% Since Pandemic Started