Microsoft builds software that lets your boss spy on you

Microsoft just filed a patent a few weeks ago for a software that will monitor and score employees’ body language and expressions during meetings. According to the patent, the software will log everything from the number of people in the meeting, how much time you left your camera on for, whether you were looking at your phone instead of the screen, the background noise in the meeting, as well as record the emotions. All this will then be used to score the meeting.

Microsoft introduced a “productivity score” tool a while ago, which raised serious privacy concerns, that lets a company keep track of the use of Office 365 apps by its employees including their Outlook email and Microsoft Teams.

According to BBC, “the system could be used to record; which invitees actually attend a meeting, attendees’ body language and facial expressions, the amount of time each participant spent contributing to the meeting, speech patterns consistent with boredom [and] fatigue.”

Silkie Carlo, director of the campaign group Big Brother Watch, said the system was ‘invasive’ and a ‘major step back for workers’ rights’. This type of surveillance will essentially introduce a uniform metric for everyone to be evaluated on which obstructs the diversity of organizations and poses serious privacy concerns.

Image Source: Mirror