By now, most employees are generally aware that their employers can access their emails, monitor web usage, and otherwise track some of their activities performed on the company’s computer network. Few people probably realize how close the next level of computerized scrutiny may be.

On December 27, 2007, the U.S. Patent office published a June 27, 2007 patent application filed by Microsoft that describes a system of components that would use various "physiological or environmental sensors to detect at least one of heart rate, galvanic skin response, EMG, brain signals, respiration rate, body temperature, movement, facial movements, facial expressions, and blood pressure.”

The patent application describes the system in terms of aiding in providing “assistance” to users, but it doesn’t take much imagination to conclude that the system could and would be used to determine career paths and employee retention. From the application:

The target activity can be identified either explicitly via direct user input or implicitly by evaluating the content the target user is viewing and related metadata such as the file name or type, application name or type, and device type. Other contextual information that is or could be relevant to the task at hand such as the user's physiological state, location, date, as well as the activity template that the target activity was created from can also be considered and analyzed. . . . [T]he system can monitor the user involved in a particular activity and recognize an implicit need for assistance. For instance, the system can detect that the user's time or effort spent on an activity has exceeded a threshold, and then can conclude that the user needs help.

The system can also automatically detect frustration or stress in the user via physiological and environmental sensors and then offer or provide some type of assistance accordingly. Baseline or "normal" parameters for each user can be established . . . .

User activity performed across various devices such as a PDA, laptop, desktop computer, smartphone, and/or pocket PC phone can be recorded in one or more logs. The systems and methods provided herein can monitor such logs in order to aggregate data about one or more activities. From this data, statistics related to performance, success rate, frequency of problem, and the like can be provided to users or can be employed to gauge a target user's success, performance, or efficiency with respect to other users.

Rowan Manahan, M.D., founder of Fortify Services, a Dublin-based career consultancy firm, author of Where's My Oasis?, and editor of the excellent Fortify Your Oasis blog, says about the system: “ It makes George Orwell’s Big Brother seem positively benign.”

Privacy law experts at Eversheds, a firm with offices in UK, Europe, Middle East and Asia see significant legal issues:

"Most countries say that companies cannot do this even with employee consent, " said Jonathan Armstrong, a partner at Eversheds.

"This is because it is a very 'master and slave' relationship. Employees have valid concerns."

Armstrong told vnunet.com that the situation is further complicated by the international nature of business.

If an employer is monitoring staff in Europe from a US head office, for example, there is debate as to how the law would be applied.

Similarly, unions and works councils are likely to kick up a stink over the treatment of staff under the proposed scheme.

While U.S. privacy laws are not as strong as those in European Union countries, there are likely to be considerable issues here as well.

Original document:

• June 27, 2007 Patent Application by Microsoft

Additional reading:

• MIcrosoft seeks patent for office 'spy' software – London Times
• How computer spy in the office will monitor everything you do – London Times
• Big Brother software...courtesy of Microsoft – Techworld.com
• OK, Now This Is A Little Scary: Microsoft Biometrics – TechCrunch
• Microsoft Takes Spyware to a New Level – Linux Journal
• Future Employee Monitoring Could Be Big Brother, but Check out the Bottom Line -- IT Business Edge
• Microsoft Seeks To Patent System To Spy On Workers – Information Week