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Employee Monitoring Software Demand up 54% since March 2020

With the widespread shift to increased working from home, companies have turned to invasive employee surveillance software to track their staff. We take a look at what the rise of these intrusive tools might mean for the future of remote working.
Employee Surveillance Software Demand Tracker header illustration of a man working on a latop
Simon Migliano
Simon Migliano

First published June 24, 2020. Latest update incorporates most recent employee monitoring software demand data, for January through March 2023.

Employee Monitoring Software Demand Trends 2020-23

  • Global demand for employee monitoring software increased by:
    • 75% in March 2020 compared with the 2019 monthly average. Demand for the software the following month was also 65% higher than in 2019.
    • 75% in Jan 2022: the biggest increase in demand compared to 2019 since March 2020.
    • 73% in Q1 2022: the biggest three-month increase in demand compared to 2019 since the pandemic began.
  • Sustained demand: 54% higher from March 2020 to March 2023 compared to 2019
  • New normal? Demand for employee surveillance software was as strong in 2022 as 2021 at 57% higher than in 2019, a bigger increase than in 2020. In 2023, it remains 51% above 2019 levels.
  • Most popular software: Hubstaff, Time Doctor, FlexiSPY.
  • Eight in 10 developers of the most in-demand employee surveillance software incentivize long-term use

Remote Work & The Rise of Employee Surveillance Software

A third of the U.S. workforce 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 software to ensure their staff work effectively from home.

This software is capable of recording almost everything an employee does on their computer, from covert webcam access to random screenshot monitoring.

The rapid rise of such invasive software risks setting new standards of workplace surveillance and dramatically undermining employees’ right to privacy.

Demand for employee surveillance software shot up by 80% in March 2020 compared to the 2019 monthly average, the same month lockdowns were imposed. It remained high the following month too, at 65% compared to 2019.

Three years on, hybrid working is being touted as the future of employment, with its mix of remote work and days in the office.

The prospect of working from home becoming permanent, even if only for part of the week, appears to have prompted a resurgent appetite for this intrusive computer surveillance software.

Employee monitoring software demand has been 51% higher on average since the start of 2023 than in 2019. This is a slightly smaller uptick than the 57% recorded in 2021 and again in 2022, however, as the graph below demonstrates, the annual averages mask significant month-to-month fluctuations. It is therefore too early to suggest any notable change in the overall trend observed since the start of 2021.

Chart showing month by month increase in demand for employee surveillance software compared to the 2019 monthly average

Chart showing month-by-month increase in demand for employee surveillance software compared to the 2019 monthly average

As the above graph shows, there has been a sustained increase in demand for employee surveillance following the initial spike in demand in March 2020.

While demand for the software did start to weaken in the final quarter of 2022 to its lowest point since before March 2020, it remained 35% higher than in 2019. It should also be noted that demand fell to similar levels in December 2020 only to rebound strongly over the course of the following year.

The difference this time however is that between August and December 2022 the size of the average increase in demand compared to 2019 actually declined month-to-month for four consecutive months for the first time since we began monitoring it in early 2020.

This sustained decline did not continue into 2023, however, when demand immediately bounced back in January 2023 to 60% higher than in 2019.

Given the fluctuations since then, it remains unclear as to how the remainder of 2023 will compare to the past three years. However, even when demand for the software eventually flattens out, as it naturally must, the damage to employee privacy will already have been done.

Why Are We Tracking Employee Monitoring Software Demand?

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

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

There has been 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 also 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]

As advocates for internet freedom and the right to privacy, we believe this kind of computer surveillance in the workplace should never be normalized. By accepting computer usage monitoring and internet surveillance by employers, the risk is that it will further encroach into all aspects of everyday life.

What Do Employers Want From Monitoring Software?

The following data table shows the ten generic queries related to employment surveillance software with the highest volume of internet searches since March 2020. The terms are ordered largest to smallest.

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 in March 2020, interest in employee surveillance software surged. Over the ensuing months, that demand has fluctuated at times but remains at at a much higher level overall than it was in 2019.

After a nine-month period between June 2020 and February 2021 where demand for the software was around 45% higher on average compared to 2019, it jumped to 59% higher in March 2021. It has remained on average at 58% higher than in 2019 since then, a 29% increase compared to those preceding nine months.

The market for employee monitoring software existed long before March 2020 of course and much of the increased interest has been focused around already dominant terms and phrases.

“Employee monitoring software”, for example, was already by far the most popular search up to March 2020, when it more than doubled.

While it is now just outside of the top ten searches by total volume since the start of 2020, “how to monitor employees working from home” was the second most popular overall phrase that March, despite being barely used the previous year. 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, overtaken by “free employee monitoring software”, amongst other terms.

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

What’s striking about recent data is that increases in some of the biggest searches have begun to accelerate.

From March 2020 to June 2022, average monthly searches for “Employee monitoring software” were 62% higher than they were in 2019. Between July 2022 and March 2023, they were 113% higher, a jump of 82%, or almost double.

The size of the increase in searches for “employee tracking software” grew by a similar amount (88%) between July 2022 and March 2023.

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 5,600% in March 2020 and remains over 540% higher since then compared to 2019.

Similarly, “work from home monitoring software” surged almost 4,500% in March 2020 and remains almost 1,400% higher than 2019 in the months since then.

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 computer surveillance in the virtual workplace, 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 Monitoring Software

The following data table shows the 10 employee surveillance software tools with the highest volume of internet searches since March 2020. The percentage difference columns are based on that month’s search volume compared to the average monthly searches in the preceding year.

Time Doctor was the most in-demand software at the peak of employer demand in March 2020 when interest in the product tripled in comparison to 2019. This caused it to jump from third to the most in-demand employee monitoring software above its previously more popular rivals Hubstaff and FlexiSPY.

Over time however, Hubstaff has re-established its dominant position with the highest overall demand since March 2020, at a monthly average 177% higher than in 2019.

Overall, our findings show that the employee surveillance market is an increasingly concentrated one, with the top three software products accounting for 60% of global demand.

The WorkPuls software experienced the highest relative increase in demand, with a 396% rise since March 2020, followed by DeskTime which experienced a 309% increase.

Not all of these employee monitoring software products offer the same functionalities and some are considerably more invasive than others.

Can A VPN Bypass Employment Monitoring Software?

What is a VPN?

VPN (Virtual Private Network) software encrypts your internet connection and routes your internet traffic via a proxy server, hiding your true IP address in the process. A VPN is typically used to evade monitoring of internet activity, access blocked websites and mobile apps, and prevent man-in-the-middle attacks on public networks.

Should I Use A VPN?

A reliable VPN service will prevent employee monitoring software from logging your browsing history. Rather than capturing your browser’s DNS lookups and the IP addresses of websites you visit, the employee surveillance tools will only be able to record that you visited the proxy server of your VPN service. Any attempts at inspecting traffic will also fail due to encryption.

Despite the effectiveness of a VPN in hiding your browsing history, it’s not possible to obfuscate its use. This will make it clear to your employer that you are trying to evade their surveillance measures, which will likely result in negative consequences.

Nor will a VPN help with other aspects of employee monitoring software, such as keystroke logging, IM monitoring or webcam surveillance.

Employee Surveillance Software Features

The following data table shows the 26 most popular employee surveillance software products and their respective functionalities.

Our analysis of the software 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 monitoring applications, keystroke logging is a highly intrusive feature that allows employers to view every click, touch of the keyboard, and conversation of their employees, who may not even realize 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]
Work Examiner key logging screenshot

Work Examiner website screenshot promoting key logging features.

Instant Message (IM) Monitoring

  • IM monitoring allows bosses to monitor their team’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 software, 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 in the software notifies employers when an undesirable behavior is taking place, allowing them to follow-up with monitoring or intervention if deemed necessary.
  • Teramind’s software, for example, 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

Teramind website screenshot showing Instant Messaging monitoring features.

Remote Control Takeover

  • The most intrusive intervention offered in employee monitoring software. 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 employees
    • 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

Netvizor website screenshot showing Remote Control Takeover features.

Methodology

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

We also calculated demand based on the average monthly internet search volume over the course of 2019. This provided a baseline figure with which we could compare demand during the period of global lockdowns and social restrictions from March 2020 onwards.

This report is updated quarterly, typically in February, May, August and November.

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 Agata Michalak

The authors of all our investigations abide by the journalists’ code of conduct.

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 ↩