{"id":230336,"date":"2021-03-28T08:19:21","date_gmt":"2021-03-28T08:19:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=230336"},"modified":"2021-03-29T07:30:05","modified_gmt":"2021-03-29T07:30:05","slug":"missing-from-desk-ai-webcam-raises-remote-surveillance-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=230336","title":{"rendered":"‘Missing from desk’: AI webcam raises remote surveillance concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"

Peter Walker \u2013 The Guardian March 26, 2021<\/strong><\/h1>\n

For anyone concerned that an era of home working could also become one of remote surveillance, the training video for Teleperformance\u2019s in-house webcam security system, called TP Observer, is the stuff of bad dreams.<\/p>\n

Explained by \u201cAnna\u201d, a desk-sitting avatar complete with an artificial voice, the video introduces TP Observer as \u201ca risk-mitigation tool that monitors and tracks real time employee behaviour, and detects any violations to pre-set business rules\u201d.<\/p>\n

Anna explains that this means home workers will have an AI-enabled webcam added to their computers that recognises their face, tags their location and scans for \u201cbreaches\u201d of rules at random points during a shift<\/a>.<\/p>\n

These include an \u201cunknown person\u201d detected at the desk via the facial recognition software, \u201cmissing from desk\u201d, \u201cdetecting an idle user\u201d and \u201cunauthorised mobile phone usage\u201d.<\/p>\n

Anna says: \u201cAny breach detected by the AI triggers a real-time alert to the supervisor for further actions.\u201d This means a still photo is snapped and sent to a manager.<\/p>\n

The video includes a series of avatar-staff asking questions, including one who asks whether the system is \u201ca breach of my privacy at home\u201d. The manager tells him the scanning is needed to \u201chelp us with risk mitigation and data security, which is required by most of our customers\u201d.<\/p>\n

Another digital employee asks if they will get into trouble if children or other family members approach their home workplace. Not \u201cas long as the people in the background are not directly looking into the screen, or very close to it\u201d. Anna replies. Staff should sit with a wall behind them \u201cto avoid such breaches\u201d, she says. Strong lights should be used for night shifts, so the camera can see properly.<\/p>\n

Teleperformance said the system would not be used for UK staff, but it is expected to be used in a number of 30-plus other countries where the French-based multinational operates and where labour laws are less strict.<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new AI surveillance system has been developed to monitor employees working from home. It\u2019s meant to catch those who spend too much time away from their domestic work stations <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":230337,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-230336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-Surveillance"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=230336"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230336\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":230338,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230336\/revisions\/230338"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/230337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=230336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=230336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=230336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}