Aussy woman, a 38-year-old Suzie Cheikho was fired from Insurance Australia Group (IAG) for not typing enough while working remotely. Australia's Fair Work Commission (FWC) rejected her "unfair" dismissal application, saying that she was fired for a "valid reason of misconduct".
The insurance firm used a sneaky technology referred as keystroke technology to monitor the work-from-home performance and productivity of an employee. Keystroke technology refers to any technology that records or analyzes keystrokes. It can include software-based keyloggers or hardware-based keyloggers. This particular software managed to pinpoint the employee’s inefficient working style using something as simple and mundane as typing.
Keystroke logging, often referred to as Keylogging/Keyloggers is the action of recording (logging) the keys struck on a keyboard, typically covertly, so that a person using the keyboard is unaware that their actions are being monitored.
According to the insurance firm's logger data, Cheikho recorded zero keystrokes over 117 hours in October, 143 hours in November and 60 hours in December. At most, she was found to be averaging 54 strokes per hour during the surveillance period.
Though Keyloggers are legal, with many designed to allow employers to oversee the use of their computers, keyloggers are most often used by by hackers for sinister activities like stealing passwords and other confidential information.
Speaking to few experts also gave an another perspective, that since the keystroke technology was primarily created for hacking confidential information (developed in 1970s by Soviet Union to target typewriters), for monitoring employees the technology wouldn't work all the time. Citing an example, the executive in one of the Big-four companies said, "the job profile of the Aussy woman in this case isn't clear. Some insurance employees or recruitment executives, for example, have to make calls then typing on their keyboards. So they might miss or have less key strokes than a software developer."
Notably, today most companies provide company-laptops at time of on-boarding employees and the number of companies providing laptop increased post COVID-19 pandemic when working remotely became a new norm, and new employees were welcomed with welcome-kits and laptops. Very few of these companies did have pre-installed keylogger software to track performance of their WFH employees.
Besides, Microsoft also publicly accepted that Windows 10 has a built-in keylogger in its final version "to improve typing and writing services". [Read – How to disable Microsoft keylogger in Windows 10]
Moreover, the web browser used within the TikTok app can track every keystroke made by its users. According to a research report, TikTok inserts code that can track activity on sites its browser is used to access. Although, TikTok said it uses the code for things like debugging. Noteworthy, TikTok is banned in both US and India, but keyloggers are not.
Keyloggers are also being installed in the user’s smartphone through the keyboard apps and are being installed by the hackers silently without the user’s acknowledgment. It send the data to hackers secretly in the background. Android smartphone experts advice to install the authenticated keyboard from a trusted source and never install the keyboard from third-party platforms. If your phones' battery drains fast or the phone gets heated then you could also be carrying Keylogger in your phone. [Read – Remove Keylogger from Android]
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