Workplace surveillance & algorithmic management

Reports and Analysis

Key Resources

Examples of algorithmic management abuses

Companies are increasingly tracking their workers and deploying unaccountable algorithms to make major employment decisions over which workers have little or no control or understanding. While gig economy workers, content creators and warehouse operatives are at the sharp end of the algorithmic black-box, opaque and intrusive surveillance practices are embedding themselves across many industries and workplaces.

Long Read

A black female content creator at her desk in front of a camera with an ominous black box with data points and an eye on one face looking at her behind her shoulder

Creating content in the gig economy: a risky business

The rise of the gig-economy, a way of working relying on short term contracts and temporary jobs rather than on an employed workforce, has enabled the growth of a number of companies over the last few years. But without the rights that comes with full employment, gig economy workers today don't have access to essential protections.

Key Resources

Content Creators Working for the Algorithm

Creators who produce content for big online platforms, from video game livestreamers on Twitch to adult content producers on platforms like OnlyFans, often find themselves forced to share a lot of data, putting their privacy and security at risk while being given limited information as to how this data is being used.

Long Read

person working from home looking back to an algorithmic black box

WFH - Watched from Home: Office 365 and workplace surveillance creep

Privacy International and UCL student exposes how productivity suite like Office 365 offers features that can enable employers to access all communications and activities on Microsoft services without the employees' knowledge

Long Read

Managed by Bots: surveillance of gig economy workers

PI, Worker Info Exchange, and App Drivers and Couriers Union have teamed up to challenge the unprecedented surveillance that gig economy workers are facing from their employers.