5 ms·

Now your employer can monitor your facial expressions to determine if you are actually working or just reading HN.

paulcole 9y ago
The future is here: "WorkSmart can track workers' keystroke activity and take webcam images to ensure they're doing their jobs." http://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-forest/index.ssf/2017/05/jives_new_owner_says_it_will_m.html http://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-forest/index.ssf/2017/05/j...
- ioquatix 9y ago
  We used to do this in a school - it wasn't creepy - hear me out: We had labs of iMacs and if anything happened to a machine, kids would (more often than not) just yank the power cord. Occasionally this would foobar the machine entirely and create unnecessary work. We couldn't catch the culprits. So, if the machine managed to boot up successfully, after an unexpected power loss, we would take a photo using the built in camera and send it along with a ticket to the job queue, as well as do a complete re-image of the machine (automatically). The number of funny photos we collected of kids just starting at the computer with WTF looks on their faces. But - from these photos we at least had the opportunity to educate the individuals about how to look after the computers a bit better.
  - hackuser 9y ago
    Couldn't you just identify the user by their logon?
    - kbenson 9y ago
      You're assuming there were usernames and passwords. For consumer grade devices in decades past, that was not the norm.
    - rtkwe 9y ago
      It's been a while but I don't think the old iMacs at my elementary school had individual user logins at the system level. For things like the reading test program there was a login I think but not for the whole machine.
      - ioquatix 9y ago
        Bingo!
    - nebabyte 9y ago
      "... Damn it!"
      - ioquatix 9y ago
        Haha :D
      - hackuser 9y ago
        Fair point.
  - jes5199 9y ago
    That's creepy.
  - ZeroGravitas 9y ago
    There was a minor scandal a few years ago when a school was sending laptops home with kids and randomly snapping photos via the webcam for similar reasons I think this is the original story, you can follow the "related stories" links at the bottom to see how it developed: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2010/02/school-under-fire-for-spying-on-kid-via-webcam-at-home/ https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2010/02/school-under-fir...
- sbuttgereit 9y ago
  The future was here in 1995.... I worked for the U.S. Postal service for a time doing data entry (here as a matter of fact... http://www.sltrib.com/news/3445651-155/the-first-and-last-of-its http://www.sltrib.com/news/3445651-155/the-first-and-last-of...). That job measured the number of keystrokes per hour of each employee. You had to maintain a 10,000 keystrokes per hour minimum data entry rate, they also spot checked for accuracy. Capturing the data you were suppose to enter (a scan of a piece of mail) what you entered, and what should have been entered. While there was no question about goofing off... they used commodity hardware, but nothing else was general purpose (no internet, no email, no solitaire, no obviously general purpose OS), and no phones, talking., etc... they were very much watching for speed and accuracy during the entire time you were clocked in.
  - matt_wulfeck 9y ago
    If only we ran other government agencies the same way!
  - flukus 9y ago
    What sort of data entry? Seems like OCR/human combo would have been better.
    - cbhl 9y ago
      Data entry of all the addresses that the OCRs failed to read. OCR was pretty bad back in 1995 (which is why the Palm Pilot had a special handwriting for users to learn). See this NPR piece: http://www.npr.org/2010/12/28/132393643/Undeliverable-Mail-Is-Auctioned-Off-At-Center-In-Atlanta http://www.npr.org/2010/12/28/132393643/Undeliverable-Mail-I... Also "Act Three" of Episode 70 of "This American Life": https://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/70/other-peoples-mail https://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/70/o...
  - executesorder66 9y ago
    > what you entered, and what should have been entered. If they knew what should have been entered, why couldn't they just automate the data entry?
- glubGlub 9y ago
  I am ready to commit suicide now. Please strap the explosives vest onto me, and help me find the people that invented this abomination.
- fixermark 9y ago
  Amazon uses pretty tight tracking in their product warehouses to verify that floor runners are meeting expected performance goals.

The future is here: "WorkSmart can track workers' keystroke activity and take webcam images to ensure they're doing their jobs." http://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-forest/index.ssf/2017/05/jives_new_owner_says_it_will_m.html http://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-forest/index.ssf/2017/05/j...

ioquatix 9y ago
We used to do this in a school - it wasn't creepy - hear me out: We had labs of iMacs and if anything happened to a machine, kids would (more often than not) just yank the power cord. Occasionally this would foobar the machine entirely and create unnecessary work. We couldn't catch the culprits. So, if the machine managed to boot up successfully, after an unexpected power loss, we would take a photo using the built in camera and send it along with a ticket to the job queue, as well as do a complete re-image of the machine (automatically). The number of funny photos we collected of kids just starting at the computer with WTF looks on their faces. But - from these photos we at least had the opportunity to educate the individuals about how to look after the computers a bit better.
- hackuser 9y ago
  Couldn't you just identify the user by their logon?
  - kbenson 9y ago
    You're assuming there were usernames and passwords. For consumer grade devices in decades past, that was not the norm.
  - rtkwe 9y ago
    It's been a while but I don't think the old iMacs at my elementary school had individual user logins at the system level. For things like the reading test program there was a login I think but not for the whole machine.
    - ioquatix 9y ago
      Bingo!
  - nebabyte 9y ago
    "... Damn it!"
    - ioquatix 9y ago
      Haha :D
    - hackuser 9y ago
      Fair point.
- jes5199 9y ago
  That's creepy.
- ZeroGravitas 9y ago
  There was a minor scandal a few years ago when a school was sending laptops home with kids and randomly snapping photos via the webcam for similar reasons I think this is the original story, you can follow the "related stories" links at the bottom to see how it developed: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2010/02/school-under-fire-for-spying-on-kid-via-webcam-at-home/ https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2010/02/school-under-fir...
sbuttgereit 9y ago
The future was here in 1995.... I worked for the U.S. Postal service for a time doing data entry (here as a matter of fact... http://www.sltrib.com/news/3445651-155/the-first-and-last-of-its http://www.sltrib.com/news/3445651-155/the-first-and-last-of...). That job measured the number of keystrokes per hour of each employee. You had to maintain a 10,000 keystrokes per hour minimum data entry rate, they also spot checked for accuracy. Capturing the data you were suppose to enter (a scan of a piece of mail) what you entered, and what should have been entered. While there was no question about goofing off... they used commodity hardware, but nothing else was general purpose (no internet, no email, no solitaire, no obviously general purpose OS), and no phones, talking., etc... they were very much watching for speed and accuracy during the entire time you were clocked in.
- matt_wulfeck 9y ago
  If only we ran other government agencies the same way!
- flukus 9y ago
  What sort of data entry? Seems like OCR/human combo would have been better.
  - cbhl 9y ago
    Data entry of all the addresses that the OCRs failed to read. OCR was pretty bad back in 1995 (which is why the Palm Pilot had a special handwriting for users to learn). See this NPR piece: http://www.npr.org/2010/12/28/132393643/Undeliverable-Mail-Is-Auctioned-Off-At-Center-In-Atlanta http://www.npr.org/2010/12/28/132393643/Undeliverable-Mail-I... Also "Act Three" of Episode 70 of "This American Life": https://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/70/other-peoples-mail https://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/70/o...
- executesorder66 9y ago
  > what you entered, and what should have been entered. If they knew what should have been entered, why couldn't they just automate the data entry?
glubGlub 9y ago
I am ready to commit suicide now. Please strap the explosives vest onto me, and help me find the people that invented this abomination.
fixermark 9y ago
Amazon uses pretty tight tracking in their product warehouses to verify that floor runners are meeting expected performance goals.