this post was submitted on 31 Oct 2023
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Of all the ideas to get workers back in the office, TikTok's employee surveillance is the worst (www.sfchronicle.com)
submitted 1 year ago by L4s to c/technology
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Of all the ideas to get workers back in the office, TikTok's employee surveillance is the worst::Companies are still figuring out how to get workers back in the office. Using surveillance technology won’t help.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

In September, the social media company introduced an internal badge monitoring app called MyRTO to its roughly 7,000-person U.S. workforce. According to company emails and notices shared with the New York Times, the app tracks employee’s badge swipes and can even penalize them for “deviations.” The app rollout was timed to the company’s planned return-to-office policy this month, requiring many of its employees to work in the office three days a week with a smaller percentage of employees being told they were expected to be in the office five days a week.

The data compiled by MyRTO is shared with human resources and is also made visible to the employees themselves. The policy aims to create “clarity and context” about return-to-office expectations, according to a TikTok spokesperson.

Once upon a time, these systems were sold as security measures. They were and are for corruption spending and controlling employees.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They are for security, as part of a combination of things, including fire alarms and surveillance systems.

Imagine allowing just anyone to walk into your building.

I've worked on/with these systems, it's no small task to deliver what's contractually required with insurance companies and regulations. I've seen many times they've done their job - from preventing an employee's irate ex from entering building, to catching a car fire in the parking lot and notifying both the fire department and employees so they could move their cars, preventing the loss of hundreds of cars.

Of course an access control system could be (trivially) queried to see when people arrived/left. Most companies don't bother because there are far more effective/useful ways to address attendance issues.

Seems like TikTok has some issues if they're willing to do this. My guess is a significant number of managers aren't enforcing the attendance requirements because they don't deem them necessary. And who would know better than them?

Weird situation, for sure. Be interesting to see how it plays out.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

catching a car fire in the parking lot [...] notifying [...] employees so they could move their cars, preventing the loss of hundreds of cars.

sounds like a really bad idea. there is a reason everyone needs to leave the office when a fire alarm happens.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That is the only news here: "Shitty spying company also is a shitty spying employer".

Don't think the systems are bad because they can be used in bad ways, they are usually used as intended and provide you safety benefits in your everyday life.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Some help, some just bloat budget (and a power of a security wing) or would be abused. Pre 9\11 world looks insane now with so many survelliance systems and checks absent. Yet, it wasn't as dangerous as one may believe.

One needs a sober evaluation of what is really needed, if adding more layers of security to mundane things is better than other measures, are they statistically effective at preventing danger or harm. Would a dedicated villain be stopped by it?

The more we fear, the more we reduce ourselves to walking narrow paths completely naked.