“If you don’t tell the employees, there’s no way for them to find out on their own.”
A few days ago, the layoff of an Internet company unexpectedly caused public concern and controversy about the employee monitoring system.
Recently, a survey found that the current “employee monitoring” has become a business. A relevant system service provider staff said that their program can be “unknowingly” monitor the use of the staff network, such as web browsing records, chat records, etc., can also monitor the screen in real-time, and even analyze the risk of employees leaving, each installed on a computer charges 350 yuan (about 55 US dollars).
Lawyers say that while it is reasonable for companies to use software to monitor employees’ work, it is necessary and obligatory to inform employees in advance. If employees are unaware of the company’s installation of monitoring software, using office computers or networks to process and transmit information involving personal privacy may infringe on their privacy rights.
“Monitoring the tendency of employees to switch jobs” sparks controversy
According to media reports, on the evening of February 11, some netizens published an employee behavior monitoring system on Weibo, with a text saying that the system can know in advance whether employees have the intention of changing jobs, which immediately sparked heated public debate. It is understood that the monitoring system page is consistent with the product introduction page of the software “Sangfor Behavior Awareness System BA” developed by A-share listed company Sangfor Technology Co., Ltd. in 2017.
According to the previous introduction on Sangfor’s official website, the “behavior perception system” can solve “pain points” such as “what is the risk of employee turnover”, “how is the situation of employee sabotage” and other “pain points”. For example, the product can provide “resignation risk analysis”, “work efficiency analysis” and so on. It can detect employees with potential resignation risk in advance, and give the basis for determining resignation risk.
However, at present, the controversial “behavior perception system” has not been able to retrieve product introduction and publicity cases on Sangfor’s official website.
On February 16, the reporter consulted Sangfor’s sales customer service as a customer. The customer service said that the company can currently provide services such as employee online monitoring and leakage channel management and control, but for monitoring and predicting employee turnover tendencies, he said, “Sangfor has never had this service. Service, you must be mistaken.”
However, on the same day, a Sangfor salesman said, “There is no resignation (propensity) monitoring for the time being. I don’t know the specific reasons. Other services such as online behavior monitoring are normal.”
In response to whether the above-mentioned “behavior perception system” has been suspended, the reporter called the Sangfor Board Secretary Office on the 18th, and a staff member said, “We don’t know, and we will not comment on this matter for the time being.”
Tianyancha App shows that in March 2018, Sangfor publicly applied for a patent titled “A method, device, device and storage medium for analyzing turnover intentions”. The method for analyzing employee turnover includes monitoring employees’ online behavior, analyzing Employee turnover tendency risk level, etc.
Jiang Wenguang, the secretary of the board of directors of Sangfor, was quoted by the media as saying that the “Behavior Awareness System BA” was not listed recently. Work efficiency analysis and turnover intention analysis are all functions of the product. The company does not monitor whose data, it is the customer’s own behavior. .
As for how Sangfor’s products monitor employees, a Sangfor salesperson introduced that the relevant systems are implemented through the intranet, and there is no need to install programs on the employees’ computers. “It is matched according to the company’s network environment.”
Installed programs can still “unknowingly” monitor employees
The reporter noticed that it has become a business to sell employee monitoring systems and provide corresponding services. In addition to monitoring employees through the intranet, there are also some systems. Although programs need to be installed on the employees’ office computers, they can still monitor employees “unwittingly”.
Network Manager is a terminal security management system, the product sales staff said that their software can monitor the use of the network, including web-browsing records, chat records, real-time screen monitoring, etc., the administrator can even directly intervene in the staff chat content sent to block employees sent “inappropriate speech.
“Our software operates in a transparent mode. If we don’t tell our employees, they can’t find out by themselves.” According to his introduction, the network manager terminal security management software is divided into two parts: “management end” and “client”. The program is installed on the employee’s computer. When the employee uses the computer, the manager can observe the network usage of all employees during working hours through the management terminal, and can also analyze the employee’s turnover tendency through the algorithm that comes with the software.
According to the sample diagram provided by the above-mentioned network manager staff, the software’s built-in analysis system can classify employees’ turnover intentions into three levels: high-risk, suspected, and suspicious. If an employee submits resumes or applies for jobs while browsing the web, the system will judge them as high-risk. If they visit the recruitment website multiple times, the system will mark them as suspicious.
According to a “Function Details” sent by the staff member, the network manager divides the user monitoring function into more than 20 modules such as device control, terminal management, and network management, involving almost all online behaviors such as employee web browsing and software use. , managers can also keep evidence through screen recording.
“The software charges according to the amount installed, each installed on a computer charges 350 yuan, five units to start selling. Each functional module can be bought as a package or in modules, at $50 per module, starting with three modules. Do not worry about the number of employees more than the software can bear, you have as many employees as we can monitor.” The above staff said.
Lawyer: To monitor employees, it is necessary for enterprises to inform in advance
According to an experienced human resources management personnel, the current use of software to monitor employees is very common in China, especially in Internet technology companies. In fact, such software has existed for more than a decade, initially for traffic protection, to prevent employees from watching videos or listening to songs during office hours, affecting the normal office, and later more for the protection of confidential company documents from being leaked, until now there is an increase in such content as employee tendency to leave statistics.
After the controversy over “monitoring employees’ tendency to switch jobs”, one of the focuses of public attention is whether such monitoring systems are suspected of infringing on employees’ privacy.
In this regard, Yang Baoquan, senior partner of Zhongyin Law Firm, said in an interview that the monitoring system itself does not involve infringement. It is essentially a neutral tool like a camera. Whether it constitutes infringement mainly depends on the use of the enterprise. Especially when it comes to the collection of employees’ personal information, it depends on the purpose of the employer’s use, whether the company monitors whether the employee’s information is used for other unreasonable purposes and whether it exceeds the reasonable scope of application.
Yang Baoquan said that according to the relevant provisions of the Civil Code and the Provisions on Internet Security Protection Technical Measures, the company installed computer monitoring software in the workplace, and did not illegally disclose the personal information of employees to the public. The behavior during the time is monitored, which belongs to the company’s right. At the same time, according to the relevant provisions of the “Labor Contract Law”, if the company’s monitoring period is during working hours, and if the monitoring area is in a public work area, the activities of employees here are naturally regarded as public activities, so the company has the right to set up cameras in the office, and also have the right to use monitoring software to supervise the network usage of employees.
Yang Baoquan further stated that although it is reasonable and reasonable for the company to use monitoring software to monitor the working conditions of employees, it is also necessary and obligatory for the company to inform employees in advance, preferably in writing. If employees are unaware of the company’s installation of monitoring software, using office computers or networks to process and transmit information involving personal privacy may infringe on their privacy rights.
For workplace monitoring, enterprises should be moderate and transparent
A few days ago, the layoff of an Internet company unexpectedly caused public concern and controversy about the employee monitoring system. This kind of system is full of “black technology”. It can not only monitor whether employees are investing in stocks and watching entertainment videos during work, but also monitor and analyze employees’ turnover intentions. There are two main questions from the public about this: Does such a system really exist? Does the company do this without infringing on the privacy rights of employees?
Answering these two questions is not difficult. On the one hand, it turns out that this kind of monitoring system exists and has powerful functions; on the other hand, as the lawyer said, on the premise of not illegally disclosing the personal information of the employees, it is reasonable for the company to use the software to monitor the working conditions of the employees, at least at the legal level, it is not prohibited.
But does this mean that companies can recklessly monitor employees’ behavior during work hours, and even browsing recruitment websites is considered a risk of leaving? The answer is of course no.
As the lawyer said, it is necessary and obligatory for the company to inform employees in advance, preferably in writing. This also means that if employees are unaware of the company’s installation of monitoring software, their privacy rights may be violated when they use office computers or networks to process and transmit information involving personal privacy.
At present, the development of technology has broken the boundaries between work and life to some extent, the workplace and the living place are integrated, work time and personal time overlap, work equipment and personal equipment are also indistinguishable, and the boundaries of “privacy” become blurred. Under such circumstances, it is understandable for companies to use technical means to monitor the performance of employees during work, out of the idea of improving management efficiency, but this must be carried out on the premise of moderation and transparency.
Transparency requires companies to inform employees before deploying surveillance. In doing so, the first is to ensure that employees have the right to know and avoid violating relevant laws. Second, employees can also consciously regulate behavior at work.
Moderation is to remind companies to limit the content of monitoring and not to act recklessly. In fact, monitoring the workplace, even with advance notice, can seriously damage trust between businesses and employees. Enterprises should strive to achieve better results by supporting or caring for employees, rather than using cold “technical eyes” to stare at whether employees have glanced at stock software and watched a few short videos during work…
Of course, the law also does not prohibit employees from using office computers to handle personal affairs during work. If the company does violate the personal rights of employees, employees must also take up legal weapons and hold the company and related personnel legally responsible. Source