Journalists working for UK newspaper the Daily Telegraph went into work with a surprise waiting for them as they discovered that their company has installed a mysterious box made by OccupEye underneath their desks.
Upon googling OccupEye, the journalists found out that these devices are monitoring devices which tracks whether or not an individual is at his or her desk. According to the website, these boxes provide “automated workspace utlisation analysts “by way of sensors that “are triggered by both motion and heat”. The data collected by this device can then be viewed on a sensor-by-sensor basis, giving whoever that is in charge of the device complete knowledge of whether or not the individual is at their desks.
This action has led to a huge fallout for the newspaper company as journalists working for the Daily Telegraph immediately voiced their disapproval of the monitoring devices. Besides that, the Daily Telegraph was further criticized by the National Union of Journalists for carrying out “surveillance” on its employee.
Almost immediately after the outrage, the Daily Telegraph has since withdrawn all OccupEye devices. The memo issued by the Daily Telegraph to its staff has stated that the company “will be looking at alternative ways to gather the environmental sustainability data we need, and will keep in touch with any new proposals.”
Sources : BuzzFeed, The Guardian
