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Content type: Examples
Behind the colourful bicycles and games rooms, Silicon Valley tech giants operate a strict code of secrecy, relying on a combination of cultural pressure, digital and physical surveillance, legal threats, and restricted stock to prevent and detect not only criminal activity and intellectual property theft but also employees and contracts who speak publicly about their working conditions. Apple has long been known for requiring employees to sign project-specific non-disclosure agreements (NDAs…
Content type: Examples
In May 2014 the Polish Ministry of Labor and Social Policy (MLSP) introduced a scoring system to distribute unemployment assistance. Citizens are divided into three categories by their “readiness” to work, the place they live, disabilities and other data. Assignment to a given category determines the type of labor market programs that a particular person can receive from the local labor offices (e.g. job placement, vocational training, apprenticeship, activation allowance). The Panoptykon…
Content type: Examples
Automated systems such as the personality test developed by Massachusetts-based workforce management company Kronos are increasingly used by large companies to screen job applicants. To avoid falling foul of regulations prohibiting discrimination against those with mental illness, often the questions are phrased in intricate ways that are harder to game - but also harder to answer without self-incrimination. It's estimated that as many as 72% of CVs are never seen by human eyes; instead, they…
Content type: Examples
In the 2014 report "Networked Employment Discrimination", the Future of Work Project studied data-driven hiring systems, which often rely on data prospective employees have no idea may be used, such as the results of Google searches, and other stray personal data scattered online. In addition, digital recruiting systems that only accept online input exclude those who do not have internet access at home and must rely on libraries and other places with limited access and hours to fill in and…
Content type: Examples
In 2016 the Dutch Data Protection Authority (AP) ruled that the Personal Data Protection Act prohibits companies from monitoring their employees' health via wearables, even when employees have given their permission. The ruling concluded the AP's investigation into two companies; in one of them, wearables even gave the employer insight into its employees' sleep patterns. The AP argued that employers are free to give wearables as gifts, but that the power relationship between employer and…