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Uber Asked Contractor To Allow Video Surveillance In Employee Homes, Bedrooms (arstechnica.com) 60

Posted by BeauHD from the always-watching dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Teleperformance, one of the world's largest call center companies, is reportedly requiring some employees to consent to video monitoring in their homes. Employees in Colombia told NBC News that their new contract granted the company the right to use AI-powered cameras to observe and record their workspaces. The contract also requires employees to share biometric data like fingerprints and photos of themselves, and workers have to agree to share data and images that may include children under 18.

Teleperformance employs over 380,000 people in 83 countries to provide call center services for a range of companies, including Amazon, Apple, and Uber. A company spokesperson told NBC that it is "constantly looking for ways to enhance the Teleperformance Colombia experience for both our employees and our customers, with privacy and respect as key factors in everything we do." Amazon and Apple said that they did not ask Teleperformance for this extra monitoring, and an Apple spokesperson said the company forbids video monitoring of employees by suppliers. A recent Apple audit reportedly found Teleperformance in compliance with this requirement. But Uber apparently requested the ability to monitor some workers. Uber said it wouldn't observe the entire workforce, but the company did not specify which employees would be subject to the new policies. The ride sharing company asked for the monitoring of Teleperformance's remote employees because call center staff have access to customers credit cards and trip details, an Uber spokesperson told NBC News.
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Uber Asked Contractor To Allow Video Surveillance In Employee Homes, Bedrooms More

Uber Asked Contractor To Allow Video Surveillance In Employee Homes, Bedrooms

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  • Dupes again. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by aardvarkjoe ( 156801 ) on Monday August 09, 2021 @04:03PM (#61673627)

    Perhaps if Slashdot's overlords installed surveillance monitoring in BeauHD's home, he'd start actually working and stop reposting stuff that's already on the front page.

    • What is the maximum number of dupes that have ever been on Slashdot's FP simultaneously?

    • Ugh. That's be almost as bad as goatse.cx. Why do you hate the overlords so much?

    • It just baffles me that, through all of Slashdot's history, they've never managed to hire anybody who actually reads what is being posted.

      • Eh, to be fair, they're probably looking at a few hundred submissions a day, but that really only excuses the odd dupe here and there.

      • It just baffles me that, through all of Slashdot's history, they've never managed to hire anybody who actually reads what is being posted.

        Can you imagine the retention problem they would have if they required them to read what was posted?

        Hell I hardly ever read whatâ(TM)s posted and I am a /. reader.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Entrope ( 68843 )

      Has anyone ever seen BeauHD and EditorDavid in the same room at the same time?

    • Perhaps if Slashdot's overlords installed surveillance monitoring in BeauHD's home, he'd start actually working and stop reposting stuff that's already on the front page.

      Yeah, and "bedrooms" was also super troll-y

  • Why does UBER have access to card details, that part should be with the bank. No wonder there is so much card fraud

    • Why does UBER have access to card details, that part should be with the bank.

      CCs work differently by country.

      America's system is the worst. Not only do you give your number directly to the merchant, but you also give them the 3-digit "security code". To make it even easier for thieves, America uses chip-and-sign with no signature verification, rather than the chip-and-PIN used in most other countries.

      No wonder there is so much card fraud

      CC fraud rates vary widely by country. Fraud-friendly America is the worst.

      • in America credit card companies send you "checks" in the mail you can use that get charged against your credit card. These are wonderful identity theft kits when they go to wrong mailbox or otherwise get heisted.

        • Shred them, and have alerts set up on one's account. So no surprise charges.

          • Of course they're shredded, but how about the once a month I get my neighbor or next block's one, and they get mine.. or someone recognizes what they are and just pinches them?

            Alert, ha. You mean while account gets frozen and new number reissued... That's not a solution to anything as much as that's just another pain in the ass.

            At least I don't pay interest to anyone, card is supposed to be just so I can use their money until end of month.

            • Alert, ha. You mean while account gets frozen and new number reissued... That's not a solution to anything as much as that's just another pain in the ass.

              Lesson learned. Always have more than one, and not just for this reason.

              • sure, I've a few. But the cc companies really need to start thinking about security like other countries did decades ago.

                • They've already done the math. It's a bid to get everyone using their service for a fee for every tiniest transaction. The amount they write off due to fraud pales in comparison to the money they make by making transactions completely mindless. Especially profitable when one adds in the interest they make from fools spending like it's not money who can't or don't pay it off monthly.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by ghoul ( 157158 )
              I use those cheques to get 0% loans (well 3% including the transfer fee) and invest in the Stock market. Most years I do better than 3% in the stock market.
        • While utterly stupid in terms of lack of verification, there's an easy solution to this: call your credit card company and ask them to stop sending you convenience checks. All of my card issuers have done this upon request.

          I'm not condoning the practice in any form - I don't like it - but it's also not impossible to avoid (unlike the fact that american credit cards are signature or no verification method preferring over PIN...)

          • oh but then the card changes to some other division or company and it starts up again, or even getting reissued with new number starts the flow again.

            It's like the dozen times I tell my retirement accounts to not mail and use email only, but every two or three years the thick paper snail mail which is 80 percent boilerplate starts up again.

        • I have no hard evidence of this (it's only anecdotal), but I have gotten the impression the USPS pays a little more attention to addresses on mail that matters.

          It's not terribly uncommon for catalogs, junk mail and sometimes magazines to be delivered to the wrong address, but it's very rare that I get other people's bills or I am missing one that I expected. It's even more common for FedEx, UPS or Amazon to deliver my packages to the wrong address or to deliver my neighbor's packages to me.

          What are banks

          • It's regional/local. Most places I've lived, I can support that observation. There are some places though where the USPS can't seem to hire anyone that gives half a fuck, even 5% of the time.

          • They send credit cards out the same way.

            The credit cards require authorization before use.

            This is easy if I call from my cell phone since my bank knows that number and can see it with caller-ID. A thief is not going to have my cell phone.

            If I don't call from a known phone, then I will need to enter my SSN. That isn't a big barrier, but someone grabbing CCs from mailboxes isn't going to know it.

      • How would one "sign" over the internet? Same with the whole chip thing. Doesn't work over the internet unless customers want to buy a reader.

        • They use debit PINs with no chargeback functionality, while patting themselves on the back for being so Superior to Americans.

        • How would one "sign" over the internet?

          The merchant displays a QR code on your computer or phone.

          You scan the QR code with the payment app on your phone, verify the amount, and tap in your PIN.

          The merchant never sees your CC number.

          To steal your money, a thief would need your phone, your face or fingerprint to activate the phone, and your payment app PIN.

      • It gets worse. I wanted a Virtual Account Number recently. In fact I've wanted one since last fall to use for a number of online transactions.

        One of my credit cards used to offer them through their website, but their server has apparently been offline since last December. That's what their site says whenever I try. After I spoke with them, they want me to download a phone app to get one. Another bank asked me why I would even wanted one. It could be because it's inconvenient to be contacted by their fraud

    • Even if the company has access to credit card numbers, why do call center employees have access to them? I can't think of a reason for them to be able to see the entire number. Maybe the last four digits in order to verify someone over the phone.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by rtb61 ( 674572 )

      Why is Uber pushing it, they want to monitor passenger and driver at all times. Cameras and microphones in vehicles every trip uploaded and data mined. Sick as can be, they know where you went and who you went with, they are known to be quite the corrupt organisation, now what can that do with that information, targeted extortion, perhaps.

      This should hit some real alarm bells in Homeland security, Uber, trying to take over Homeland security role and control it via government. So smells of mass extortion in

  • ESPECIALLY Bedrooms (Score:3)

    by CoolDiscoRex ( 5227177 ) on Monday August 09, 2021 @04:15PM (#61673677) Homepage

    Giggity

  • Its almost like the USA is slowly turning into Russia.

    • Its almost like the USA is slowly turning into Russia.

      TFA is about call centers in Colombia.

    • Its almost like the USA is slowly turning into Russia.

      The USA turned into Russia (a corrupt plutocracy) well over a century ago.

      • We may be more plutocratic than say Norway, but we fought the Civil War to keep from becoming a true plutocracy (there was no way to compete economically with slaveowners), and The New Deal was another large step away from plutocracy. Implying that it was a step *towards* plutocracy is simply foolish, and I don't know what else you might be trying to refer to. Our biggest steps back towards plutocracy in the last century began during the 80s.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by ghoul ( 157158 )
          You can compete against plutocrats in a slave owning society. Just provide a UBI of 2 slaves each to every free man /s

        • We may be more plutocratic than say Norway, but we fought the Civil War to keep from becoming a true plutocracy (there was no way to compete economically with slaveowners),

          No, the Confederate economy fell steadily behind because industrial machinery outproduced slaves.
          https://www.nps.gov/articles/i... [nps.gov]

  • I mean, I even made an account to complain about this.

  • ... you don't aim those cameras between mirrors. Because you'll get duplicate images and people will think its Slashdot.

  • We also need video surveillance of the corporate executive's homes and offices to ensure they are earning their large salaries.

    • The difference is that when a rich executive turns on the camera in his large home office, his only concern is that he'll be recorded doing something non-work and get in trouble over his home office tax writeoff. And his children wouldn't be in the video; he would lock the door. That's something you can do when you have a home office.

      The complaint here is that the office security camera requirements are unpleasant for poor people, who don't have a separate home office. They might live in a one room apartmen

  • " The ride sharing company asked for the monitoring of Teleperformance's remote employees because call center staff have access to customers credit cards and trip details"

    Maybe your employees can learn from your great example! They need to spy on the company because it has access to their salary data and work performance.

    Spying is probably the real reason companies do not like work from home, it is harder to spy on the employees at home. They want to keep reading your emails, dropping in unexpectedly

  • About 15 years ago the CIO where I worked said if we wanted to work from home (on a regular basis) we had to submit a picture of our workspace. Oh my. Some people worked 60 miles (or more) away and I could sympathize with them, but I was a mere 20 miles away and they never would have let me even if mine had met their approval. The new CEO had recently walked into the IT department one morning and had asked "Where the hell is everyone?" Some of us were WFH, others just hadn't gotten there yet and some were i

    • I had a proper desk with a half empty bottle of vodak on it. Or was it half-full? I can't remember.

      Well based on that I'm gonna say it was empty.

  • Re (Score:1)

    by Ultimer ( 8105522 )
    Many seniors are quite lonely, so they use the Internet to find significant others or just make friends. My grandmother managed to find her third husband on seniorstodate [datinger.uk], so I believe that it's even easier to find friends on the internet. I hope that you'll make some new friends online, you just need to find a good platform for that.

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