Microsoft seeks patent for office 'spy' software
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/...cle3193480.ece

Microsoft is developing Big Brother-style software capable of remotely
monitoring a worker’s 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 computer’s
assessment of their physiological state.

Technology allowing constant monitoring of workers was previously
limited to pilots, firefighters and Nasa astronauts. 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” and “offer and provide assistance accordingly”. Physical changes
to an employee would be matched to an individual psychological profile
based on a worker’s 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 that he needed help.

The Information Commissioner, 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”. Hugh Tomlinson, QC, an expert
on data protection law at Matrix Chambers, told The Times: “This system
involves intrusion into every single aspect of the lives of the
employees. It raises very serious privacy issues.”

Peter Skyte, a national officer for the union Unite, said: “This system
takes the idea of monitoring people at work to a new level with a new
level of invasiveness but in a very old-fashioned way because it
monitors what is going in rather than the results.” The Information
Commissioner’s Office said: “Imposing this level of intrusion on
employees could only be justified in exceptional circumstances.”

The US Patent Office confirmed last night that the application was
published last month, 18 months after being filed. Patent lawyers said
that it could be granted within a year.

Microsoft last night refused to comment on the application, but said:
“We have over 7,000 patents worldwide and we are proud of the quality of
these patents and the innovations they represent. As a general practice,
we do not typically comment on pending patent applications because
claims made in the application may be modified through the approval
process.”
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