Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Working from homeArtificial intelligenceLatest NewsTech sectorEmployee relations

Employees look to avoid snooping employers

by Adam McCulloch 15 Apr 2021
by Adam McCulloch 15 Apr 2021 Photo: Shutterstock
Photo: Shutterstock

Nearly a quarter of UK remote workers prefer using personally owned technology to work devices so they can avoid employee monitoring by their companies.

Research by global cybersecurity firm Kapersky found that almost half (44%) of home workers were subject to monitoring software and that 24% were using personal technology to circumvent it. Three in 10 (31%) told researchers they were likely to use their own devices more for work if company-provided devices had monitoring software installed.

About a quarter of UK employers (24%) said they would leave their job if they felt their privacy was being invaded.

Kaspersky said the study pointed to a “serious need for employers to examine their surveillance practices to understand the true impact on productivity and employee satisfaction”.

The firm added that with remote or hybrid working set to be permanent for many of us, ethical concerns around installation of surveillance software was paving the way for a rise in shadow IT.

Its survey of 2,000 full-time workers in the UK revealed that one-third (34%) of workers said they felt that employer monitoring has increased since the start of the pandemic.

Employee phone and internet use

Call centre denies webcam monitoring claims 

How HR can use tech to support employees, rather than watch them 

How to protect against issues arising from employee email and internet use 

Policy on mobile telephone use 

A quarter of these people did not report any negative upshots to this but 32% revealed that the use of monitoring tools would make them less trusting of their manager or team leader and 30% said they would be upset at the invasion of their privacy.

Surveillance included email monitoring (16%), internet and app usage (15%), phone use (12%) and even location tracking (9%). This was “pushing some workers to take their work activities off the grid and out of sight” claimed Kaspersky.

Because more employees were now using unapproved devices to avoid surveillance, many organisations’ networks were becoming increasingly vulnerable to cyber attacks. Kaspersky said such attacks had risen over the past year but team leaders needed to appreciate better the risk of people now managing and working with data outside of the corporate network on personal devices.

David Emm, principal security researcher at Kaspersky, said: “Given the drastic working routine changes that everyone has gone through over the last year, it’s understood that some employers might use monitoring tools. They can’t recapture the same office-based levels of accountability otherwise. However, there is likely to be a tipping point for many workers, and this study has already shown that if businesses go too far, employees may take their entire at-home activities off the corporate radar.”

Employees working on their own devices creates shadow IT, which presents an immense risk to businesses, Emm added.

He pointed out that with more than 90% of all cyber breaches caused by human error, companies needed to have complete oversight of how their IT systems and hardware were being used by remote workforces, and so must carefully balance their monitoring activities.

The study found that 80% of managers trusted their staff to work effectively from home, but only just over half (54%) of workers said they felt trusted. Emm said businesses should be striving to maintain and improve this balance as they continue to feel their way into the new remote working world.

Latest HR job opportunities on Personnel Today

Browse more human resources jobs

Adam McCulloch
Adam McCulloch

Adam McCulloch is a freelance writer and production editor who has worked in sectors including travel (The Guardian), aviation (Flight International), agriculture (Farmers' Weekly), music (Jazzwise), theatre (The Stage) and social work (Community Care). He also works for a national newspaper and is the author of KentWalksNearLondon

previous post
Nearly two in five given work shifts at short notice
next post
Furlough scheme may cause workplace divisions

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

You may also like

Work in the metaverse: what should HR prepare...

1 Apr 2022

TUC warns against employee monitoring after Post Office...

28 Feb 2022

HSBC Holdings employees under scrutiny for WhatsApp use

23 Feb 2022

Why algorithms at work aren’t all bad

18 Jan 2022

How HR can get ahead of AI regulation

4 Jan 2022

IKEA staff found hidden camera in toilet

4 Oct 2021

Bounds Taxis drivers are workers, tribunal finds

22 Sep 2021

1,200 HSBC employees to work permanently from home

8 Apr 2021

Call centre denies webcam monitoring claims

29 Mar 2021

How HR can use tech to support employees,...

15 Mar 2021
  • Strathclyde Business School expands its Degree Apprenticeship offer in England PROMOTED | The University of Strathclyde is expanding its programmes...Read more
  • The Search for Talent: Six Major Employer Pitfalls PROMOTED | The Great Resignation continues unabated...Read more
  • Navigating the widening “Skills Confidence Gap” in 2022, and beyond PROMOTED | Cornerstone OnDemand conducted a global study...Read more
  • Apprenticeships are the solution to your recruitment problems PROMOTED | Apprenticeships have the pulling power...Read more
  • What it really means to be mentally fit PROMOTED | What is mental fitness...Read more
  • How music can help to ease anxiety at work PROMOTED | A lot has happened since March 2020, hasn’t it?...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2022

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2022 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+