Since the Covid-19 pandemic, there have been even more changes in the workplace driven by technology. Many people were forced to work from home, which saw a big increase in video conferencing.

It also accelerated the move to the cloud, as workers needed to be able to access data and carry out work remotely. With hybrid working becoming the new normal, the way that a lot of workers use technology has fundamentally changed.

Some new technologies were coming along anyway, driven by factors like improving Artificial Intelligence and tighter data protection legislation.

There are concerns that all this new technology could be used by employers to snoop on workers. ‘Bossware’ is a term coined for software that focuses on the labour process, from hiring people to productivity monitoring. For example, software that tracks employees location or collects data on working hours.

Coworker.org, an American not-for-profit described as a ‘laboratory for workers to experiment with power-building strategies’ have been looking at this issue. They’ve created a database of ‘Bossware’ on their website and published a report called ‘Little Tech is coming for workers’.

The report argues that these new technologies are leading to a wild west, with tech companies ‘skirting’ with laws and lacking in transparency. They cite a lack of due diligence in the development and deployment of these new technologies being a real problem and argue that new inventions by emerging companies are adding to the problem.

The Bossware database

The ‘Bosstech’ database is fascinating. It features over 550 worker-focused products impacting on the workplace. Searches can be made by category, company, investors and even pinpoints technologies that emerged during the pandemic.

Searching through the database reveals a wide range of applications, from specific McDonalds software and Amazon Warehouse monitoring to more widely used Microsoft applications.

Not all the software is necessarily that sinister. For example, it lists Microsoft software that IT teams need to use for data protection best practice, securing data to prevent issues when a phone or laptop is lost mor stolen.

However, much of the software can probably be used in more than one way, and that’s the problem.