Company tracking software on your computers? My company is starting to talk about it due to everyone being remote. I don't want to be that guy talking about 1984 and big brother but it really sits with me wrong. Philosophically at least. Most of us are against it and have proposed a united front of refusal. Thoughts?

Kill the hydra before it grows more heads

And install linux to make it harder for them to install shit :D

Depends why they're doing it. If it's to track peoples time or monitor what work you are doing that's wrong. That is much easier, more productive, and more transparent through something like Jira.
If it's to ensure that work computers aren't compromised or if they are lost/stolen then can be remotely wiped then I think that's legitimate.
I'm guessing the company own the equipment so it's really up to them.

On company provided equipment? Yes

On my personal computers? Fuck no!

@dan-pud Yeah, I did some digging. Legally because of the ECPA, SCA, and GDPR they can pretty much do whatever on their computers. I'm hoping as employees maybe we can revolt!

@phuzisham That is your choice, but ... as we face hard economic times, your management will remember those that did revolt.

@Demolishun haha...that's dark man. Did you just finish reading The Gulag Archipelago? You're not wrong though. This is a global company. So the revolt would be the entire US office at least. Which is 15. I don't think they'd close the whole US office. But anythings possible.

I'd be fine with it on a work machine since I don't own it. But now I'm working on my own machine at home, I've spun up a VM to keep my work stuff seperate.

They can do whatever they want with there own infrastructure (if the Laptop/MacBook) belongs to the company there is nothing you can do

Really don't get the argument that companies can do what ever they want... If you guys don't feel comfortable with that (assuming that is unjustified due to the nature of the level of discomfort) just voice it... if it goes ahead anyway, consider moving to another company...

Why so many people oppose the idea that companies want to know what are you doing with their hardware during the time they're paying you? The classic MOTD: "This computer system and network is PRIVATE and PROPRIETARY .... The owner, or its agents, may monitor any activity or communication on the computer system or network."

The important questions are different, like

- "Are those data going to be used against you?" or

- "Does you manager understands you need time to unwind even during the shift, because continuous 100% productivity brings burnout?".

I'm quite sure we're monitored, yet no amount of 9gag browsing caused any issues to anyone. The only examples that got fired were people watching porn during their shift.

@phuzisham I'm honestly torn on this one. I value privacy like not many people do but I currently work as a cybersecurity engineer and have loads of situations where an EDR solution (what you're describing but then less intrusive and for endpoint security) would have solved the entire goddamn security issue.

Good luck!

Thanks for the input everyone. Current update, the entire US office had a meeting and we've pretty much refused. Sounds like we're going to move to a timer system instead. So that's kind of a win. I feel like there has to be a way to judge productivity based on output. Are our managers that clueless as to what we do?

@phuzisham "Are our managers that clueless as to what we do?" Ideally, yes.