One of the most important aspects of successful totalitarian regime is a well run division of surveillance. Luckily, American corporations have become very skilled at this to the point where they will send spies around the world to follow employees who happen to be lovers.
The investigator flew to Guatemala in April 2002 with a delicate mission: trail a Wal-Mart manager around the country to prove he was sleeping with a lower-level employee, a violation of company policy.
The apparent smoking gun? “Moans and sighs” heard as the investigator, a Wal-Mart employee, pressed his ear against a hotel room door inside a Holiday Inn, according to legal documents. Soon after, the company fired the manager for what it said was improper fraternization with a subordinate
NY TIMES
Even if you feel like sex doesn't have a place in the office, is it really appropriate for your employer to spy on you while you have sex in a private hotel room?
And was sex the only reason he got fired?
Mr. Lynn, in an interview and in a wrongful-termination lawsuit filed against Wal-Mart, claims he was singled out because he openly criticized the working conditions in the Central American factories he inspected.
“Wal-Mart is the ultimate Big Brother in corporate America,” Mr. Lynn said. He disputes Wal-Mart’s claim that it investigates every employee the same way. “They are very opportunistic,” he said. “If it is someone they want to get rid of, they will go all out. If it’s somebody whose career they want to save, they won’t.”
Wow. So Wal-Mart is perfectly fine with having sweatshop labor in their supply chain, but if two employees pull a Jim and Pam, they should be stalked and fired. Is there any concept of privacy anymore? Apparently not at our nations largest employer. And this is particularly frightening with the massive spy agency they’ve been building.
Over the last five years, Wal-Mart has assembled a team of former officials from the C.I.A., F.B.I. and Justice Department…
But not all of Wal-Mart’s investigations involve money, or even high-stakes business matters, prompting employees to protest that the company’s investigative arm is, at times, used to intimidate employees who question authority or raise issues their bosses wish to remain secret.
Wal-Mart’s spy agency is headed up by the unironically named Kenneth Senser, the former head of internal security for the CIA and FBI. Wal-Mart has tapped phones, read text messages, and emails of many employees. Some of these investigations may be justified as finding ethical violations and protecting trade secrets just as many government surveilance activities are justified as national security or protecting classified documents. But are CIA tactics suitable inside the workplace?
I shouldn't single out Wal-Mart because in recent years, we have seen a complete invasion of our personal lives by most employers. You don't even have to be a current employee to be spied on.
The Federal Trade Commission has approved a controversial firm which scours social media sites to check on job applicants.
It means anything you've ever said in public on sites including Facebook, Twitter and even Craigslist could be seen by your would-be employer.
The Washington-based commission has ruled the firm, Social Intelligence Corporation, complies with the Fair Credit Reporting Act - even though it keeps the results of its searches on file for seven years...
Daily Mail
That sounds really creepy, but I'll let the company speak for themselves.
Social Intelligence Corp solely generates reports based on employer pre-defined criteria, both positive and negative. Negative examples include racist remarks or activities, sexually explicit photos or videos, and illegal activity such as drug use. Positive examples include charitable or volunteer efforts, participation in industry blogs, and external recognition.
Social Intelligence Corporation
This stuff is not any of your bosses business. I don't care if you're a meth addicted nazi who does Bukake porn on the side, as long as you can still do your job it's none of your bosses goddamned business. Unfortunately, spying on employees remains completely legal.
Civil rights attorney Kristin Case says employers have every right to and do snoop around employees personal pages. If the employer can access something it finds objectionable, even if it's legal it could be grounds for firing.
Kristin Case: Unless someone works for a government entity (federal state local) generally they have no free speech rights
This kind of spying has become more and more widespread in recent years. 66% of employers monitor employees internet connections, and 17% have punished employees for their activities on social media.
Corporate surveillance is also used against activists involved in social movements.
Back in 2007-2008, Burger King was facing a protest movement of students and workers demanding that they improve labor conditions for tomato pickers in their supply chain. BK didn’t like this because this would cost money and give workers some control and dignity in their workplace. They eventually gave into the CIW demands, but only after revelations about an extensive program of infiltration, espionage, and internet lies approved by the company.
This kind of infiltration of activist groups is something governments have done for years such as the FBI’s COINTelpro program in the 60s which dug up dirt on MLK and in recent years, Bush’s program which infiltrated anti-war groups. It’s right out of the dictator’s handbook.
WHILE the Patriot Act has raised fears about government spying on ordinary citizens, the growing threat to civil liberties posed by corporate spying has received much less attention. During the late 1990s, a private security firm spied on Greenpeace and other environmental groups, examining activists’ phone records and even sending undercover agents to infiltrate the groups, according to an article in Mother Jones. In 2006 Hewlett-Packard was caught spying on journalists. Last year Wal-Mart apologized for improperly recording conversations with a New York Times reporter.
And now it turns out that the Burger King Corporation, home of the Whopper, hired a private security firm to spy on the Student/Farmworker Alliance, a group of idealistic college students trying to improve the lives of migrants in Florida.
NY TIMES
Is this the kind of world you wanna live in? Corporate behemouths and their government subsidiaries tracking our every move.
"We urge the Egyptian authorities not to prevent peaceful protests or block communications including on social media sites," Hillary Clinton
"The Egyptian government must put forward a credible, concrete and unequivocal path toward genuine democracy." Barack Obama
As citizens we expect a democratic government that is open and accountable and protects freedom of speech, press, and assembly. Why then do we tolerate a dictatorship in the workplace that spies on us, oppresses us, and controls us?
9:48 AM PT: Sorry the link is wrong for daily mail. This one should work
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/...