2. Group members Student No
1. V.P.N. BadungodageBM/2007/010
2. D.V.S. Mendis BM /2007/153
3. M.D.S. MudannayakaBM/2007/156
4. W.G.I.L. WijesingheBM/2007/ 299
5. M.V.L.C.S. Karunarathna BM/2007/314
6. M.K.M.E.Perera BM /2007/180
7. W.D.S.suboda BM /2007/262
8. C H weerakon BM /2007/ 283
Subject t - Contemporary HRM
Course code - BHRM41172
Department of Human Resource Management
University of Kelaniya
3. Introduction to Surveillance.
Surveillance is the collection of data on a person, object or ‘target’ with the explicit intention
of influencing or managing what that ‘target’ does or where it goes.
Management’s ability to monitor, record and track employee performance, behaviors and
personal characteristics in real time (internet/ telephone monitoring) or as part of broader
organizational process.
Surveillance is the collecting of information about people with the purpose of controlling
their future behavior or actions with the information.
Businesses use workplace surveillance as a way of monitoring the activities of their
employees. Today's businesses often use information technology in their operations and
communications. Business leaders have concerns related to employee misuse of available
technologies. Technology appropriate use policies are being developed by some businesses as
a way to protect business interests. These policies define employee use that is appropriate and
other uses that are subject to scrutiny. Businesses are also implementing surveillance systems.
4. General principles for surveillance.
All workplace policies and procedures which may raise surveillance issues should be
assessed against the following five point checklist.
1. Openness
Workers are entitled to know what forms of surveillance are being used and what they are
being used for. Hidden surveillance or the use of the information it produces can destroy trust
in the workplace.
2. Consent
If a worker is to be the subject of a particular form of monitoring, he or she should have
specifically agreed to it, either through a clause in a contract or through a separate agreement.
3. Consultation
New forms of surveillance should not be introduced without meeting standards of procedural
fairness. Informing or consulting with unions and/or workers is the most appropriate means
of ensuring that surveillance policies are workable and fair.
4. Private spaces.
Workers should not be in fear of or subject to constant surveillance. All workers should be
guaranteed areas, means of communication and periods during the day in which they can be
sure that they will not be monitored.
5. Proportionality
A fair balance should be struck between the purposes of surveillance and the protection of
worker, privacy, dignity and autonomy. This means that surveillance should be (1) to meet a
legitimate aim (2) necessary to meet that aim and (3) the least harmful means for workers of
meeting that aim.
There is also increasing academic interest in the impact of work intensification through new
technologies in workplaces such as call centres, and the health and safety issues that can arise
for workers as a result. It may be that all e-mail and other policies should address this aspect
as well
5. TypesofSurveillance
1. Covert Surveillance
"Surveillance is covert if and only if it is carried out in a manner that is calculated to ensure that the
persons who are subject to the surveillance are unaware that it is or may be taking place.Cannot
undertake Covert surveillance under any circumstance, without written authority of a covert
surveillance authority.
A covert surveillance authority will only authorize covert surveillance if there is just cause to
believe that there is a valid reason to believe that a wrong doing has occurred/ is occurring
2. Overt surveillance
This occurs where adequate notice has been given to the subject of the surveillance and the
subject is aware that he/she is being monitored
Must explicitly define; how and when and where surveillance will be undertaken, the purpose
of surveillance and the information collected. When implementing overt surveillance it
should excludes restrooms, bathrooms, change rooms etc & must display warnings at every
entry point at which surveillance is undertaken
It must not be used in a discriminate manner (age, sex, religion, Ethnicity).
Employers would need to comply with the Following eight legislative principles when
undertaking overt surveillance:
1. Overt surveillance should not be used in such a way that it breaches an individual’s
Reasonable expectation of privacy.
2. Overt surveillance must only be undertaken for an acceptable purpose.
3. Overt surveillance must be conducted in a manner which is appropriate for purpose.
4. Notice provisions shall identify the surveillance user.
5. Surveillance users must be accountable for their surveillance devices and the consequences
Of their use.
6. Surveillance users must ensure all aspects of their surveillance system are secure.
7. Material obtained through surveillance to be used in a fair manner and only for the purpose
Obtained.
8. Material obtained through surveillance must be destroyed within a specified period.
6. Methods ofSurveillance
1. Telephones surveillance
Today the United States has at least 130 million cell phone users. All are subject to
increasingly precise tracking with cell phone surveillance technology. The infrastructure that
supports such tracking has evolved rapidly through a series of technical, legal, and political
mutations, all stemming from the choices of highly interested actors. The resulting
configuration of laws, networks, and corporate interests determines who is able to use the
phone system to gather information about the mobility, not only of individuals, but of the
population as a whole.
The telephone, is the most important piece of equipment a person conducting surveillance
uses. The telephone is one of the major communication medium you obtain and pass
information with.
Advantageous of Telephones surveillance
Telephone tapping
Telephone tapping is the monitoring of telephone and Internet conversations by a third party,
often by covert means. The wiretap received its name because, historically, the monitoring
connection was an actual electrical tap on the telephone line. Legal wiretapping by
a government agency is also called lawful interception. Passive wiretapping monitors or
records the traffic, while active wiretapping alters or otherwise affects it
The official and unofficial tapping of telephone lines is widespread. In the United States for
instance, the Communications Assistance For Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) requires that
all telephone and VoIP communications be available for real-time wiretapping by Federal law
enforcement and intelligence agencies. Two major telecommunications companies in the U.S.
-- A AT&T and Verizon—have contracts with the FBI, requiring them to keep their phone
call records easily searchable and accessible for Federal agencies, in return for $1.8 million
dollars per year. Between 2003 and 2005, the FBI sent out more than 140,000 "National
Security Letters" ordering phone companies to hand over information about their customers'
calling and Internet histories. About half of these letters requested information on U.S.
citizens.
7. Video facility
In place of the video surveillance cameras currently installed on the exteriors of buildings, on
city-owned poles and in other public places, the security industry will instead install cellular
telephones ("digital radios"). Unlike video cameras, even those that are outfitted
with wireless transmitters, so-called "cell-phones" are fully integrated, multi-purpose devices.
They can be outfitted with tiny digital cameras that can take high-quality stills or moving
pictures, can be controlled by remote units, and can use microwaves to transmit images to
far-away locations almost immediately after taking them.
Example: - Mobitel
Features
Real-time video monitoring on your mobile phone & on your laptop
Recording and playback facility
Proprietary Multi-streaming video technology, TeleEye SMAC-Mvideo coder generates 5
independent video streams for superb recording and optimal transmission with minimal
bandwidth utilization
Email/SMS notifications
Free mobile applications for a wide array of mobile phones ranging from J2ME supported
phones to high end smart phones(IOS, Android, Symbian)
Digital Outputs for event triggering (e.g. Burglar alarm)
To collect location data
Mobile phones are also commonly used to collect location data. The geographical location of
a mobile phone (and thus the person carrying it) can be determined easily (whether it is being
used or not), using a technique known multilateration to calculate the differences in time for a
signal to travel from the cell phone to each of several cell towers near the owner of the phone.
A controversy has emerged in the United States over the legality of such techniques, and
particularly whether a court warrant is required. Records for one carrier alone (Sprint),
showed that in a given year federal law enforcement agencies requested customer location
data 8 million times
8. 2. Biometric surveillance
We all know that ensuring the safety and security of the workplace is essential for all
employers. The difficulty for employers comes in finding ways to achieve this objective in an
efficient and cost-effective manner. Many different forms of security measures are available.
Hired security guards are highly visible deterrents to unauthorized access and theft, but can
be prohibitively expensive. Pass-card systems are readily available, but can be manipulated or
breached by wrong-doers with the technical know-how.
Some employers have also introduced biometric scanning technologies to limit and track
access to the workplace. Biometric scanners digitally scan unique physical characteristics
(examples include a person’s iris, fingerprint, or hand geometry) and therefore can limit
access to the workplace to only those authorized persons whose unique physical
characteristics are stored in the company’s computer system.
Biometric surveillance refers to technologies that measure and analyze human physical
and/or behavioral characteristics for authentication, identification, or screening
purposes. Examples of physical characteristics include fingerprints, DNA, and facial patterns.
Examples of mostly behavioral characteristics include gait (a person's manner of walking) or
voice.
Facial recognition is the use of the unique configuration of a person's facial features to
accurately identify them, usually from surveillance video. Both the Department of Homeland
Security and DARPA are heavily funding research into facial recognition
systems. The Information Processing Technology Office, ran a program known as Human
Identification at a Distance which developed technologies that are capable of identifying a
person at up to 500 ft. by their facial features.
Another form of behavioral biometrics, based on affective computing, involves computers
recognizing a person's emotional state based on an analysis of their facial expressions, how
fast they are talking, the tone and pitch of their voice, their posture, and other behavioral
traits. This might be used for instance to see if a person is acting "suspicious" (looking
around furtively, "tense" or "angry" facial expressions, waving arms, etc.).
A more recent development is DNA fingerprinting, which looks at some of the major markers
in the body's DNA to produce a match. The FBI is spending $1 billion to build a new
biometric database, which will store DNA, facial recognition data, iris/retina (eye) data,
fingerprints, palm prints, and other biometric data of people living in the United States. The
9. Los Angeles Police Department is installing automated facial recognition and license plate
recognition devices in its squad cars, and providing handheld face scanners, which officers
will use to identify people while on patrol.
3. Corporate surveillance
Corporate surveillance is a term that is used to describe any type of discreet monitoring of
activities within a business or within the industry associated with that business. When this
type of surveillance is utilized internally, the goal is usually to protect the interests of the
company. This is done by using various forms of employee monitoring to make sure all
policies and procedures are being followed, and that employees are conducting themselves
and their use of company property in a manner that is considered ethical and legal. In
situations that relate to monitoring the activities of major competitors, corporate
surveillance will typically involve monitoring media outlets as well as using technology to
stay abreast of any information in the public domain that relates to those competitors.
As an internal process, corporate surveillance often makes use of software that monitors the
use of computers by employees. Sometimes referred to as computer spyware, the purpose of
the software is to make sure the equipment and the links to the Internet are being utilized for
business rather than personal usage. Often, the corporate spyware makes it possible to access
emails sent and received, track searches conducted using various search engines, and identify
web sites that are visited. This type of activity is often considered necessary to maintain
productivity and make sure employees are focused on successfully completing tasks
associated with their job responsibilities.
Corporate surveillance is the monitoring of a person or group's behavior by a corporation.
The data collected is most often used for marketing purposes or sold to other corporations,
but is also regularly shared with government agencies. It can be used as a form of business
intelligence, which enables the corporation to better tailor their products and/or services to be
desirable by their customers. Or the data can be sold to other corporations, so that they can
use it for the aforementioned purpose. Or it can be used for direct marketing purposes, such
as the targeted advertisements on Google and Yahoo, where ads are targeted to the user of the
search engine by analyzing their search history and emails (if they use free webmail
services), which is kept in a database.
10. 4. Internet surveillance
Is the active surveillance of the user’s Internet activities? When users operate a computer
on the Internet, a record of the sites that were visited and the operations that were
performed by the user can be generated by Internet surveillance software. Also known as
spyware this software is able to track the user’s activities and report it to the administrator.
The administrator can then report this to the employer with various techniques.
5. Video surveillance
Video monitoring is a commonplace method of deterring theft, maintaining security and
monitoring employees. For example, a bank may utilize video monitoring to prevent or
collect evidence on a robbery. A company may also use video monitoring in a parking
garage as a security measure for employee safety.
Employers may also use cameras to monitor employee productivity and prevent internal
theft.
Uses of video surveillance
• Protection from the risks of internal and external theft
• Protection of premises from threats such as sabotage, arson and vandalism;
• Monitoring individual employee work performance (ie productivity);
• To improve customer service by observing peak periods and planning the
Allocation of staff throughout the day;
• To assist in staff training;
• To enhance health and safety standards;
• To ensure that employees comply with legal obligations;
• To protect employers from liability and unfair dismissal claims;
• To monitor production processes (including for machine malfunction);
• For a range of other purposes (e.g. investigation of compensation claims by
Employees – although this is often conducted outside the workplace);
11. 6. Computer surveillance
The monitoring recording, by means of software or other equipment of the information input
or output, or other use, of a computer used by the employee.
Uses of computer surveillance
Preventing excessive personal use of computers
Employers want to ensure that employees are not wasting time by using their computers for
recreational or other personal purposes when they should be working – in particular, by
surfing the internet and sending personal emails
•Preventing bandwidth drain resulting from personal use of computers
Recreational use of the internet at work by employees ‘can also have a devastating effect on
a company’s bandwidth. Employees who download music, pay bills online, play games or
just browse the web impede the work-related activity of colleagues
• Preventing actions that may otherwise harm employer: e.g. leaking secrets
Employers also undertake computer surveillance to minimize the risk of employees viewing,
taking or leaking (intentionally or unintentionally) confidential information or trade secrets to
third parties, including competitors. In other words, to guard against the risk of employees
violating the employer’s privacy. Other ways in which Employee’ computer use has the
potential to harm their employer include defrauding the Business of funds and posting on the
internet, or circulating by email, views or Information that are damaging to the reputation of
the business.
• Protecting security of computer system from external threats
• Blocking Spam e-mails - Employers block Spam emails, which have been sent to
employees and which, amongst other things, can waste employees’ time and reduce
productivity.
• Performance monitoring and quality assurance
Computer surveillance may be used to monitor ‘the performance of employees, such as
Data entry operators, who spend the majority of their work time on a computer
12. The way in which Workplace Surveillance is regulated.
When considering the current situation in Sri Lanka, still there is no regulations developed
for ‘Workplace Surveillance’ but in countries like New South Wales and Australia, there are
separate acts passed by the relevant governments regarding the Workplace Surveillance.
Workplace video surveillance Act 1998 in New South Wales.
Generally, the Workplace video Surveillance Act
Prohibits the surveillance by employers of their employees at work except where employees
have been given notice or where the employer has a covert surveillance authority. Covert
surveillance authorities can only be issued by a Magistrate for the purpose of establishing
whether or not an employee is involved in any unlawful activity at work;
Applies to camera surveillance, computer surveillance and tracking surveillance.
Extends beyond the workplace to any place where an employee is working;
Prohibits surveillance in a change room, toilet facility or shower or other bathing
facility at a workplace;
Restricts and regulates the blocking by employers of emails and Internet access of
employees at work. In particular it prevents employers from blocking access to
emails or Internet sites because the content relates to industrial matters;
General notice requirements
Written (or emailed) notice must be given at least 14 days prior to any surveillance
commencing, indicating the kind of surveillance to be carried out (camera, computer
or tracking), how the surveillance will be carried out, when the surveillance will start
etc. For new employees notification must be given before they start work.
Cameras used for the surveillance must be clearly visible in the place where the
surveillance is taking place. Signs must also notify people that they may be under
surveillance in that place and must be clearly visible at each entrance to that place.
There must be a notice clearly visible on the vehicle or other thing that is being
tracked, indicating that the vehicle or thing is the subject of tracking surveillance.
13. Additional computer surveillance notice requirements
Computer/Internet/email surveillance of an employee must not be carried out unless
the surveillance is carried out in accordance with a policy of the employer on
computer surveillance of employees at work. The employee must be notified in
advance of that policy
Monitoring and recording of the use of a computer such as taking back-ups, for instance, were
to be used to conduct surveillance to facilitate the reading of somebody's emails that would
need to be notified to employees; otherwise it would be considered to be covert surveillance.
Emails: The Act also places restrictions on the blocking of emails. Employers will be
required to give notice to an employee on any occasion when an e-mail message sent by or to
the employee is blocked.
Workplace Privacy Act 2011 in Australia.
The Australian Capital Territory has introduced workplace surveillance laws as a response to
concerns that security cameras and other monitoring devices were being
installed in workplaces without the knowledge of employees.
The Workplace Privacy Act 2011 (ACT) (the Act) will operate in a similar manner to the
New South Wales regime, which has been in place since 2005. The Explanatory Statement
provides that the object of the Act is to ensure that employers inform and consult with
employees on any surveillance that takes place in the workplace, specifically any optical, data
and tracking surveillance.
In order to conduct ordinary surveillance of a workplace, the Act requires employers to go
through a process of notification and consultation prior to implementing the surveillance. The
notification must outline the manner in which surveillance will be conducted and what
those surveillance records may be used for. The notification may take the form of a
'surveillance policy' that is issued to all employees, or individual notices. A consultation
period of 14 days must be in place following the initial notice of surveillance.
The Act also provides that an employer may make an application to the Magistrates Court for
covert surveillance, where they can demonstrate:
a reasonable suspicion that an employee is engaging in unlawful activity
14. that covert surveillance is necessary to prevent the unlawful activity, and
the covert surveillance is conducted by a nominated responsible person authorized by
the Magistrate.
The Act prohibits any form of surveillance in areas where there is a 'heightened expectation
of privacy', such as prayer rooms, bathrooms or change rooms.
The provisions relating to prohibited surveillance commenced on 10 March 2011. The
remainder of the Act commences operation on 24 August 2011.
15. Advantages & Disadvantages of Work place Surveillance
Advantages
1. Discourage many wrong doings and it gives employers the opportunity to spot check how
their employees work. This can be useful to increase the productivity and,at the same time
management can stop inappropriate and harmful behavior .
2. Ensure workplace safety and security by eliminating theft and losses to the organization.
3. It will help to ensure company procedures, management supervision are being implementing
smoothly.
4. Reducing exposure to liability risk. Normally significant legal obligations fall upon all
employers. For an example employer may be liable for employee misconduct such as
computer hacking, violation of security laws,workplace harassment and discrimination.
Surveillance Technologies can prevent those issues in to some extent.
5. Surveillance can be used to control the cost. When employee download irrelevant material off
the internet, call friends or steal stationary they add to their employer’s cost. Work place
surveillance is an effective tool for eliminating these unnecessary expenses.
6. Employees remain safe and focus on their work
7. Eliminate leaking of confidential material.
8. Recover important communications that have been lost. If an employee’s work was lost due
to a power outage, a problem with PC or a mistake now it will always be logged and can
retrieved safely.
Disadvantages
1. Continuous observing can lead to distrust and resentment. It will be a reason for
demotivation. Using surveillance to monitor employee may damage mutual trust between
employees and management creating suspicion and tension in the workplace. It will lead to
increased industrial dispute.
2. Have to bear high cost to purchase Surveillance equipments
3. Difficult to protect Employee privacy. Workplace surveillance can serve as a tool for the
employer to illegally gain access to Intellectual Property
16. Practical examples
Surveillance practices at Logiwiz
Telephone calls Monitoring
The system itself checking and monitoring the outgoing calls from the extensions.
Automatically it records the outgoing calls which exceeds the time bound of 8 minutes.
Those details are sum up in a report type monthly bill and circulate to the relevant department
and all the managerial staff members.
E-Mail Monitoring
Frequency of using e-mail facility also checking across the system and the capacity of
maximum documents attachment is limited to 2 MG. When the user exceeds the given
capacity, the details are automatically store in the system and will monitor and follow up at
the end of the month.
CCTV Monitoring
The employees behavior is monitoring through out the work time and store in the system for
any investigation and security system always keep their eyes on to the recordings.
Web Browsing Limitations
Web browsing accesses are denied for some selected entertainment web sites like Facebook,
Yahoo etc
Location Monitoring
There are more than 10 Logiwiz locations island wide. Therefore specially appointed group
visits these locations randomly and gather details based on wide scope of criteria.
Monthly Night work Roster
Security officers do walk around the warehouse after the end of general work time schedule
and seal the working area and warehouse until it open in next day morning
17. Practical issues of surveillance
Totalitarianism
Programs such as the Total Information Awareness programs have led many groups to fear
that society is moving towards a state of mass surveillance with severely limited personal,
social, political freedoms.
Practices like COINTELPRO also highly impact on individual’s freedom and privacy. This is
stands for Counter Intelligence Program) and this was a series of covert, and often
illegal, projects conducted by the United StatesFBI aimed at surveilling, infiltrating,
discrediting, and disrupting domestic political organizations.
Some point to the blurring of lines between public and private places, and the privatization of
places traditionally seen as public (such as shopping malls and industrial parks) as illustrating
the increasing legality of collecting personal information.
Traveling through many public places such as government offices is hardly optional for most
people, yet consumers have little choice but to submit to companies' surveillance
practices. Surveillance techniques are not created equal; among the
many biometric identification technologies, for instance, face recognition requires the least
cooperation. Unlike automatic fingerprint reading, which requires an individual to press a
finger against a machine, this technique is subtle and requires little to no consent.
Psychological/social effects
Some critics, such as, believe that in addition to its obvious function of identifying and
capturing individuals who are committing undesirable acts, surveillance also functions to
create in everyone a feeling of always being watched, so that they become self-policing. This
allows the State to control the populace without having to resort to physical force, which is
expensive and otherwise problematic.
Privacy
Numerous civil rights groups and privacy groups oppose surveillance as a violation of
people's right to privacy.
Legislative proceedings such as those that took place during the Church Committee, which
investigated domestic intelligence programs such as COINTELPRO, have also weighed the
pros and cons of surveillance.
18. How HR Manager can intervene in surveillance?
In many ways HR manager can intervene in surveillance. Basically the purpose might be
influencing, managing, directing, or protecting of individuals and groups. But in some
scenarios surveillance can create positive effects and sometimes negative, due to its
ambiguity. Therefore Employees may think it is threat to their privacy & dignity.
Due to surveillance, there is a probability of emerging conflicts between top management and
employees. In such situations, HR manager should be responsible to play an impartial role
between the two parties, since both the parties are equally valuable to the company.
It is important to develop a surveillance policy within the company and update company’s
standing instructions according to the policy. In here HR manager can specifically mention
the purpose of their surveillance policy and what are they trying to achieve through this kind
of a policy. In most of the times, objectives are to increase productivity, reduce wastage and
improve work place security. HR manager should also make sure that he/she is effectively
communicating the requirement of a surveillance policy within the company. There should be
also a room for questions which would further clarify the policy and HR manager as the
responsible person should always ensure that everything is communicated effectively to their
audience.
The purpose of the policy should be always evolved around directing and protecting
employees in the organization. Within a hassle-free, protective atmosphere, the overall
effective and efficiency is higher. Therefore through a written agreement of policy HR can
obtain an opportunity to monitor employees without harming their privacy.
Creating awareness is an extremely important stage when introducing this kind of a new
policy to the company. Therefore HR manager should organize awareness programmes with
regards to the surveillance policy in order to demonstrate practically how it works without
harming their privacy. In here also effective communication plays a vital role. After a
thorough analysis HR manager can decide the way they should target each audience together
with ideal strategies in communicating the policy.
