With more professionals working from home than ever before, it begs the question, can a manager spy on their employees through Zoom? Many jobs include regular meetings with someone droning corporate buzz words like "think outside the box" and "Synergy." These meetings can be mind-numbing on the best of days and nearly induce a coma on the worst. But as attention inevitably wanes during an executive overview of fiscal budget plans or department bandwidth, the realization hits; perhaps there's a solution. During the Zoom video call, remote workers could surf the net, watch YouTube or post the latest on Facebook. After all, no one would know since everyone is working remotely. Or would they?
Attendee Attention Tracking
In a home office, it's not like the boss can stare over workers' shoulders as they could before and monitor tasks like a busy body, right? Well, actually, Zoom has made it possible for managers to keep tabs on whether or not everyone is paying attention with a feature called Attendee Attention Tracking. During a Zoom meeting, when another participant actively shares their screen, the software can identify if the window isn't front and center on everyone's monitor. For those paying attention, Zoom will label them "In Focus," letting the host know who's on task. However, if an employee decides to open a second window to get the latest celebrity gossip or do some shopping, the boss may be onto them. It may be time to get another pot of coffee brewing and prepare to endure the full uninterrupted Zoom meeting to avoid the ire of upper management.
Video Chat and Privacy
One of the features of Zoom allows people to send both public and private chat messages during video calls. Many employees believe that when they send a message privately to a colleague during a live meeting such as, "I can't believe he thinks that hairpiece looks real," or "Blah, blah, blah….I can't wait until lunch… I'm craving salad", it remains between them. Unfortunately, while at the moment it's private, it also saves and shows up in the minute's folder following the meeting. Meaning once the Zoom video call has ended, the boss could pull up the chat folders seeing all the messages passed back and forth. Remote workers might want to skip the private chat banter to avoid an awkward one-on-one with a disgruntled manager.
Recorded Meetings in the Cloud
Okay, so if the boss hosts a Zoom meeting, they can tell who's paying attention and afterward read private chat messages. But if there's a meeting between co-workers without management present and loose lips discuss workplace frustration, non-company business, or some other boss-unfriendly topics, no one would find out, right? Well….yes, the corporate overlords can watch and even view transcripts of all meetings. Zoom has a feature that enables companies to save all the video calls to the cloud for viewing and reference at their leisure. Depending upon how studious or throughout a manager combs through these Zoom calls, an employee could find themselves in hot water over a meeting that took place months prior.
The Truth About Zoom
While many people are enjoying the freedom of working from home, companies haven't been so easy to relinquish a certain amount of control over their employees. Even miles away and in the safety of a home office, professionals may have gotten a little too comfortable and assumed that the boss could no longer lean over and monitor their work. However, Zoom has provided corporations with powerful tools to keep track of their employees, and many have begun to realize the rampant privacy issues present in one of the biggest video call platforms. Remote workers need to be careful around Zoom and understand that everything spoken or typed should be considered public information. Unfortunately, while the boss may be across town, Zoom works hard to keep them apprised of everyone's activities.
Sources:
Edwards, C. (2020, April 3). Your boss can spy on you with zoom – including seeing if you're not watching screen and reading your private chats. The Sun. Retrieved May 20, 2022, from https://www.thesun.co.uk/tech/11320087/boss-can-spy-on-you-with-zoom/
Morse, J. (2021, October 29). Zoom is a work-from-home privacy disaster waiting to happen. Mashable. Retrieved May 20, 2022, from https://mashable.com/article/zoom-conference-call-work-from-home-privacy-concerns