http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article3193480.ece#

January 16, 2008

Microsoft seeks patent for office 'spy' software
Alexi Mostrous and David Brown

Microsoft is developing Big Brother-style software capable of remotely
monitoring a worker's productivity, physical wellbeing and competence.

The Times has seen a patent application filed by the company for a
computer
system that links workers to their computers via wireless sensors that
measure their metabolism. The system would allow managers to monitor
employees' performance by measuring their heart rate, body temperature,
movement, facial expression and blood pressure. Unions said they fear
that
employees could be dismissed on the basis of a computer's assessment of
their physiological state.

Technology allowing constant monitoring of workers was previously limited
to
pilots, firefighters and Nasa astronauts. This is believed to be the
first
time a company has proposed developing such software for mainstream
workplaces.

Microsoft submitted a patent application in the US for a "unique
monitoring
system" that could link workers to their computers. Wireless sensors
could
read "heart rate, galvanic skin response, EMG, brain signals, respiration
rate, body temperature, movement facial movements, facial expressions and
blood pressure", the application states.

The system could also "automatically detect frustration or stress in the
user" and "offer and provide assistance accordingly". Physical changes to
an
employee would be matched to an individual psychological profile based on
a
worker's weight, age and health. If the system picked up an increase in
heart rate or facial expressions suggestive of stress or frustration, it
would tell management that he needed help.

The Information Commissioner, civil liberties groups and privacy lawyers
strongly criticised the potential of the system for "taking the idea of
monitoring people at work to a new level". Hugh Tomlinson, QC, an expert
on
data protection law at Matrix Chambers, told The Times: "This system
involves intrusion into every single aspect of the lives of the
employees.
It raises very serious privacy issues."

Peter Skyte, a national officer for the union Unite, said: "This system
takes the idea of monitoring people at work to a new level with a new
level
of invasiveness but in a very old-fashioned way because it monitors what
is
going in rather than the results." The Information Commissioner's Office
said: "Imposing this level of intrusion on employees could only be
justified
in exceptional circumstances."

The US Patent Office confirmed last night that the application was
published
last month, 18 months after being filed. Patent lawyers said that it
could
be granted within a year.

Microsoft last night refused to comment on the application, but said: "We
have over 7,000 patents worldwide and we are proud of the quality of
these
patents and the innovations they represent. As a general practice, we do
not
typically comment on pending patent applications because claims made in
the
application may be modified through the approval process."

You can probably count on conservative states outlawing this kind
of employer practice. The rest of you in the north eastern liberal
state and who work in government, get ready to be plugged in.