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Microsoft seeks patent for office 'spy' software
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of Times of London
Posted: February 3rd, 2008
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/ar...
Microsoft is developing Big Brother-style software capable of remotely monitoring a workers productivity, physical wellbeing and competence. The Times has seen a patent application filed by the company for a computer system that links workers to their computers via wireless sensors that measure their metabolism. The system would allow managers to monitor employees performance by measuring their heart rate, body temperature, movement, facial expression and blood pressure. Unions said they fear that employees could be dismissed on the basis of a computers assessment of their physiological state. This is believed to be the first time a company has proposed developing such software for mainstream workplaces. Microsoft submitted a patent application in the US for a unique monitoring system that could link workers to their computers. Wireless sensors could read heart rate, galvanic skin response, EMG, brain signals, respiration rate, body temperature, movement facial movements, facial expressions and blood pressure, the application states. The system could also automatically detect frustration or stress in the user. Physical changes to an employee would be matched to an individual psychological profile based on a workers weight, age and health. If the system picked up an increase in heart rate or facial expressions suggestive of stress or frustration, it would tell management. Civil liberties groups and privacy lawyers strongly criticised the potential of the system for taking the idea of monitoring people at work to a new level.
Note: For revealing reports from major media sources on the increasing surveillance of all aspects of society by secret government and corporate programs, click here.
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