result #122540 - MICROSOFT SEEKS PATENT FOR OFFICE 'SPY' SOFTWARE

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MICROSOFT SEEKS PATENT FOR OFFICE 'SPY' SOFTWARE

[+] serious ballot by patch22us
ACTIVE Jan 16,2008 - Sat Jan 26, 08

Microsoft seeks patent for office 'spy' software

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.”

Does this growing trend, GLOBALLY, concern you? It also strikes me that we have so many more important things we should be working on instead of how governments and corporations can further track and opress us.

Do you worry about this trend, or just ignore it?

I worry about this trend and intrusion	8
I am not worried about this at all	4

Ballot #122540: has 12 total votes.
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COMMENTS:
Voted : I worry about this trend and intrusion
Winston Green would not approve. Neither do I. And I'm waiting for the moment when one of the Watchers gets hoist on his/her own petard.

by Truthseeker013 on Wed Jan 16, 08 7:14am [+]

Voted : I worry about this trend and intrusion
How many bestandworst users are regular viewers or commentators of the Times Online? I swear I have seen Truthseeker commenting on the site about Jeremy Clarkson.

Governments and businesses the world over are introducing policies that identify and punish the minority of offenders, but these policies have a detrimental affect on the vast majority of society who just want some fucking privacy.

by winston on Wed Jan 16, 08 7:48am [+]

This isn't a new technology. This software has been around for years. I'm glad Microsoft is keeping with tradition and copying already available software, because the microsoft name will make it popular and it will just be a watered down version that doesn't work anyway. They have kept more IT people in business than any other company.

by RobinGaylord on Wed Jan 16, 08 11:16am [+]

if they want robots, they should hire robots, not try to turn us into one.

as microsoft users, can we all have a vidcam connection to his household? Maybe if we start stalking his wife and children maybe he would know how it felt.

monopoly sucks.

by LCD on Wed Jan 16, 08 11:18am [+]

"Monopoly sucks"

yeahhhh! Trivial Pursuit is kinda shite too!

by britvic55 on Wed Jan 16, 08 12:13pm [+]

Voted : I worry about this trend and intrusion
Now they're going too far.

by skylab on Wed Jan 16, 08 12:47pm [+]

Voted : I worry about this trend and intrusion
Very disturbing.

by forgetmenot on Thu Jan 17, 08 5:38pm [+]

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