Chinese social media users have erupted in outrage after discovering a monitoring system created by a Shenzhen-based tech firm which can predict employees about to quit their jobs.
Snoops On Your Browsing
The system, built by Sangfor Technologies, spies on the employees’ online activities.
For example, it can monitor if workers have been visiting job search sites and how much time they spend there.
An anonymous social media user claimed that he got fired after his boss got to know that he submitted applications for other jobs.
In his post on Maimai, he wrote that the boss said, “Don’t think that I don’t know what you’re up to during office hours. I know exactly when you plan to leave!”
Unapologetic Monitoring Of Workers
He shared a screenshot of what he claims to be the system used to monitor his computer activity at his workplace.
It was identified as a Sangfor Technologies product.
Other users posted pictures of the system which appears to show workers’ profiles, including specific websites they browsed and even links to download PDF files of resumes sent out.
Sangfor Technologies had applied for a patent in 2018 for a system that calculates employees’ perceived resignation risk.
Zero Privacy When Using Office Wi-Fi
It does so by spying on an employee’s online surfing activity, checking whether they visited job websites or sent applications.
The system then ranks employees by the level of perceived resignation risk.
Nikkei had reported last year about a software that Sangfor created which would track employees’ mobile browsing history whenever they use their employer’s Wi-Fi
Such systems do not require prior consent from users, the report said.
AI To Judge Workers’ Emotions
Despite this particular incident, high-tech monitoring tools are common in Chinese workplaces.
In June, companies including Huawei, China Mobile, China Unicom, and PetroChina had been reported to have employed an AI emotion-recognition system.
Designed by the Chinese tech firm Taigusys, this system would monitor employees’ emotions by tracking their facial expressions in the workplace.
The AI system would run the expressions of multiple people through an assessment at once.
An algorithm then assesses each individual’s facial muscle movements and biometric signals.
Tracking “Suspicious” Activity
It then evaluates them on several scales- Good emotions, Negative emotions and Neutral emotions — like how “focused” one is on a task.
In its product description, Taigusys says that it can also analyse the person’s emotional response and “figure out if they are up to anything suspicious.”
That same month another report was published that Chinese companies were using extreme surveillance to ensure workers stayed productive by logging the number of hours they spent on specific websites.
[“source=trak”]
