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As workplace surveillance becomes increasingly pervasive, experts argue that understanding the mechanisms through which employers monitor you proves advantageous.

As workplace surveillance becomes increasingly pervasive, experts argue that understanding the mechanisms through which employers monitor you proves advantageous.

C2🇨🇳 中文🇺🇸 English

August 21st, 2026

As workplace surveillance becomes increasingly pervasive, experts argue that understanding the mechanisms through which employers monitor you proves advantageous.

C2
Please note: This article has been simplified for language learning purposes. Some context and nuance from the original text may have been modified or removed.

🇺🇸 English

University administrators scrutinized the bespoke thesis annotations that a scholar with concurrent teaching duties had composed for their students.

大学行政人员审阅了一位兼任教职的学者为其学生撰写的个性化论文评注

Having monitored the frequency and duration of a pharmacist's patient consultations, management mandated a curtailment of the time allotted for interpersonal engagement with those seeking care.

管理层在追踪某药剂师接诊预约的次数与时长后,责令缩减与患者交流的时间

Scanning apparatus affixed to the warehouse conveyor belts perpetually surveilled operatives' throughput, thereby ensuring the expeditious inspection of several hundred items per hour.

仓库传送带上的扫描装置持续监测工人的操作速率以确保他们每小时完成数百件物品的查验

Tens of thousands of employers are now leveraging technologies that proliferated during the COVID-19 pandemic to subject their workforce to rigorous surveillance of movements, productivity, and communications.

成千上万的雇主正借助新冠疫情期间广泛普及的技术手段对员工行踪工作效率通讯往来实施严密监控。

A vast array of digital instruments continues to be deployed for geolocation tracking, the harvesting of task-completion metrics, and the activation of cameras embedded in company-issued smartphones and laptops, thereby provoking profound public disquiet over the extent to which employees' privacy is being eroded even within the sanctity of their own homes.

大量数字工具仍被用于追踪定位采集任务完成率数据调取工作配发的智能手机笔记本电脑摄像头权限这引发了公众对于员工即便身处私宅其隐私究竟被侵蚀至何种程度的深切忧虑。

The persistent surveillance of workers by employers is hardly a novel phenomenon; nevertheless, recent breakthroughs in artificial intelligence and data science have empowered them to amass extensive datasetsso-called 'dossiers'—deployed not only to discipline employees but also to anticipate their behavioural trajectories.

雇主对工人的持续监控由来已久然而人工智能与数据科学领域的最新突破已使其能够构建起涵盖广泛的数据集或所谓档案”,用以惩戒工人乃至试图预判员工的行为动向

Such is the assertion of Wilnelia Negrón, director of research and policy at the non-profit organisation Coworker, which is dedicated to assisting workers in organising themselves to ameliorate their working conditions.

非营利组织Coworker的研究与政策总监威尔内达·内格龙如是表示该组织致力于协助工人组织起来以改善其劳动条件

This article is part of the Associated Press's "Be Well" column, which is dedicated to addressing topics such as health, fitness, nutrition, and mental well-being.

本文美联社“健康报道”(Be Well)专栏之组成部分旨在聚焦健康、健身饮食心理健康等议题

For further installments of "Be Well," kindly refer to the pertinent special section.

欲览更多“健康报道”内容,敬请参阅相关专题

"In the labor market, those workers with the most diminished power often become the testing ground for more invasive data collection practices," Negron asserted.

在劳动力市场中那些权力最为式微的工人往往沦为某些更具侵入性的数据采集手段的试验场,”内格龙如是断言

A collaborative investigation conducted by Vanderbilt University, Northeastern University, and the University of California, Berkeley, has brought to light that several of the most prevalent workplace surveillance practices, in the absence of explicit disclosure, entail the sharing of employees' names, email addresses, and other personal data with hundreds of external data brokers and technology enterprises.

范德堡大学东北大学加州大学伯克利分校联合进行一项调研揭示若干最为普遍的职场监控举措在未予明确披露的情况下雇员的姓名电子邮箱地址及其他个人数据,与数百家外部数据经纪商及科技企业进行共享

Data privacy experts engaged in in-depth dialogues with workers and journalists who allege they are under stringent surveillance, delving into the multifarious risks engendered by employer monitoring practices they have witnessed, as well as the array of judicious measures employees can adopt to safeguard their personal information.

数据隐私专家那些声称自身正遭受严密监控工人记者进行了深入交流探讨了他们所目睹的雇主监控行为带来的种种风险以及员工捍卫个人信息安全所能采取的一系列审慎举措

The pharmacist Lanie Duong's duties at the medical clinic encompass conducting consultations with patients afflicted by chronic conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, and cardiac ailments.

药剂师兰妮·杜昂在医疗诊所的职责涵盖罹患糖尿病高血压心脏病等慢性疾病的患者进行会诊。

She meticulously scrutinizes their medical histories, hematological test results, and clinical manifestations, subsequently tailoring pharmacological regimens accordingly.

细致审阅其病史血液检验结果临床症状并据此调整用药方案

Given the limited English proficiency of certain patients, she frequently engages professional interpreters to ensure the precision and fluidity of clinicianpatient communication.

鉴于部分患者英语能力有限时常聘请专业口译员以确保医患沟通的精准与顺畅

Duang alleged that her employer not only subjected her call durations and appointment times to rigorous surveillance but also, during performance evaluations, interrogated her as to why she devoted such considerable time to each patient.

杜昂声称其雇主不仅她的通话时长预约耗时实施了严密监控在绩效评估环节中她为何于每位患者身上耗费如此之久的时间提出了质询

"Everything is accounted fordown to the very minute of your calls.

一切被纳入核算——包括你通话的每一分钟

The minutiae involved border on the absurd," remarked Du Ang.

其间的琐碎之处荒谬绝伦,”杜昂言道

"We were tasked with undertakings that appeared to exceed our capabilities."

我们被责令去完成那些看似力所不及之事。”

Under the relentless pressure that Duang depicted, she felt profoundly "distrusted, unappreciated, and on the verge of utter despair.

杜昂所描绘的那种持续不断的重压之下,深感不被信任不被赏识几乎陷入彻底的绝望

It was utterly exhausting."

令人心力交瘁。”

Ultimately, she was compelled to take leave for recuperation, subsequently channeling her efforts into volunteer work within a union organized alongside fellow pharmacists.

最终不得不告假休养转而投身于与其他药剂师共同组织的工会志愿活动之中

"I spoke out in a resounding voice, hoping that others might also unburden their hearts, yet such efforts proved ultimately futile," Du Ang remarked.

以洪亮之声直言不讳冀望他人亦能倾吐心中之忧此举终归徒劳无功,”杜昂如是说

She asserted that, upon the exhaustion of her sick leave, she was met with the misfortune of dismissal.

声称病假告罄之后,便解雇之厄运

Many employers who rely on surveillance tools often operate with conspicuous transparency, and they will bring in employee committees to jointly scrutinize the deployment of such instruments, as Negron observes.

众多倚仗监控工具的雇主,其操作往往昭然若揭会吸纳员工委员会共同审视此类工具的运用之道内格龙如是说

Nevertheless, there are also employers who resort to covert manoeuvres, tracking, ranking, and appraising their employees' movements through means of which the latter remain utterly oblivious, she added.

然而亦有雇主暗度陈仓以员工浑然不觉之手段对其行踪进行追踪排位评鉴她补充道

"Workers will inevitably have to unite, for the concentration of such tracking and surveillance power has already escalated to a staggering degree," Negron asserted.

工人们势必将要团结一致因为这种追踪与监控力量集中化发展态势已然迅猛到令人咋舌的地步,”内格龙如是断言

As awareness of surveillance tools deepens, a cohort of workers is mounting resistance against instruments that track task completion times, contending that such monitoring may precipitate occupational injuries, while simultaneously interrogating the scope and utilization of the personal data harvested, as articulated by Hayley Tsukayama, state affairs director at the Electronic Frontier Foundationa nonprofit dedicated to digital privacy.

随着对监控工具认知的日益深化部分劳动者正对追踪任务完成时长的工具发起抵制声称此类监控或将诱发职业性损伤同时就所采集的个人信息范畴及其用途提出质疑电子前沿基金会——一家专注数字隐私的非营利组织——的州事务主任海莉·冢山如是说

Regrettably, should you avail yourself of employer-issued equipment, you must anticipate that some form of surveillance will shadow your every move, as Tsukayama observes.

遗憾的是倘若使用工作场所配发的设备便应当预料到某种形式的监视如影随形冢山如是说

Negron underscored that conducting a systematic and profound assessment of the data collection and surveillance landscape within one's industry constitutes a truly prescient endeavor.

内格龙强调所在行业数据采集监控态势进行系统性的深度研判,实乃高瞻远瞩之举

Absent such discernment, practitioners may find themselves precipitously unprepared when confronted with the intelligence that surveillance lays bare.

倘若缺乏此类认知一旦直面监控所揭示的资讯从业者恐将陷入措手不及的窘境。

While instructing a university-level composition course, Arianna Anaya astutely discerned that administrators would scrutinize the essays students submitted to the institution's learning management platform, along with the annotations she had composed on their assignments.

在教授大学写作课程的过程中,阿里安娜·安纳亚敏锐地洞察到管理员会审阅学生上传至学校学习管理平台上的论文以及她对作业所撰写的评注

Students frequently center their creative endeavors on intimate relationships, delving into sensitive domains such as abuse, eating disorders, and familial trauma.

学生们往往以亲密关系为核心议题进行创作,深入探讨虐待饮食失调家庭创伤等敏感领域

"The institution essentially relies on its online learning platform, affording administrators and staff access to student work that is typically of an intensely private and personal nature, while we were explicitly instructed that students were to remain wholly oblivious to this," Anaya remarked.

“学校基本上依托在线学习系统,使管理员与工作人员得以阅览通常极具私密性与个人性质的学生作品,而我们被明确告知,学生对此应毫不知情,”安纳亚如是说。

A colleague who had the commentary published levelled a grave reproach at Anaya's nonchalant tone in her interactions with students, and censured her for failing to adhere to the stipulations of the course syllabus.

一位将评论付梓的同事对安纳亚与学生互动时那种漫不经心的口吻提出了严正非议并指摘她未能恪守课程大纲之规范

Several months later, Anaya's teaching contract was not renewed, though she remained perpetually in the dark as to the precise reasons behind this decision.

数月之后安纳亚的执教合约未能获得续签尽管她对其中的确切缘由始终不得而知

"This plunged me into a state of near-pathological paranoia," Anaya confessed.

"使陷入一种近乎病态的偏执状态,"安纳亚坦言

"It engendered within me a profound and pervasive sense of insecurity in this world."

"这个世界上感受到一种深刻而弥漫的不安全感。"

Several states, including New York, Connecticut, Delaware, and Maine, have enacted legislation mandating that employers fulfill notification obligations when implementing employee surveillance.

若干州份诸如纽约康涅狄格特拉华缅因已立法要求雇主在实施员工监控之际须履行告知义务

Maine's statutory provisions, however, are notably more stringent, expressly prohibiting visual surveillance within an employee's residence or private vehicle unless such observation is indispensable to the performance of job duties, as articulated by Edward Haller, the manager of privacy and artificial intelligence compliance.

缅因州之法规更为严苛明令禁止在雇员居所或私人车辆内进行视觉性监视除非此类观察系履行工作职责所不可或缺者隐私与人工智能合规经理爱德华·哈勒如是阐述

The crux of the matter lies in precisely what scope the legally defined 'work duties' encompass,” Haller observed.

症结在于法律所界定的‘工作职责’究竟涵盖何种范畴?”哈勒指出

Telehealth nurses rely on cameras; the camera itself constitutes the very core of their work.

远程医疗护士依赖摄像头摄像头本身即为工作之核心

Conversely, a productivity webcam mounted on an ordinary office desk would almost certainly fall outside this purview.

装配于普通办公桌上的生产力网络摄像头几乎必然不在此列

The delineation of this boundary is precisely the foremost issue that the Department of Labor must urgently clarify as its initial priority.

此界限之划定正是劳工部亟需率先厘清首要议题

In jurisdictions where no prior notification is mandated, employees frequently remain oblivious to whether their employers are covertly surveilling their job performance through technological means.

那些未规定须事先告知的司法管辖区雇员往往难以察觉雇主是否正借助技术手段对其工作表现进行隐蔽监控

To bring the matter to management's attention, Tsukayama counselled coordinating with the union first.

向管理层呈报此事冢山建议与工会进行协调

Should that avenue prove unviable and you find yourself obliged to meet the manager alone, she advocates approaching with circumspection and maintaining an inquisitive tone.

倘若此路不通又需单独约见经理则主张以审慎之姿接近,并保持探询的语气

You might mention having noticed certain anomalies on your computer, then pose questions such as, "What purpose do these data serve within the company, and by what means might they be divulged beyond its confines?"

言及在电脑上留意到某些端倪继而提出诸如这些信息在公司内部作何用途又有何途径外泄至公司之外?”之类的问题

Thus spoke Tsukayama.

冢山如是说

A viable point of departure lies in ascertaining precisely which employee data your organisation actually collects, as Aiha Nguyen, director of the Labour Futures Initiative at Data & Societya non-profit dedicated to the study of technology's societal impactobserves.

一个可行的切入点在于查明贵组织究竟采集了哪些具体的员工数据数据与社会研究所一家专事技术影响研究的非营利机构劳工未来倡议主任艾哈·阮如是说

Should your immediate superior be wholly unacquainted with the matter, the information technology department may well furnish the answerfor it is, after all, typically its personnel who have activated these functionalities, Nguyen adds.

倘若你的直属上级对此一无所知,那么信息技术部门或许能给出答案——毕竟通常正是该部门的从业人员启用了这些功能阮补充道

Commonplace software applications such as Microsoft Office and Zoom incorporate tools capable of monitoring worker productivity, yet these tracking functionalities are not invariably activated.

诸如Microsoft OfficeZoom常见软件程序,其内部集成了可用于监控工人生产力的工具然而这些追踪功能并非始终处于启用状态

Given that these features are deeply embedded within the program's architecture, ascertaining whether they are in an active state frequently proves to be a formidable challenge, as Nguyen elucidates.

鉴于这些功能深度嵌入程序架构之中判断是否处于激活状态往往颇具难度阮如是阐述

This mechanism operates spontaneously and is perceived as a lever enabling employers to assert, "These are indispensable requisites of the role; you are obliged to employ these tools," she elucidates.

此机制具有自发性被视为一种可使雇主得以主张此乃职务之必备要件尔等必须采用这些工具的凭借她如是阐述

To ensure the robust safeguarding of personal information, experts strongly advise against utilising work devices for handling domestic affairs or highly sensitive personal data, such as that pertaining to medical conditions.

切实保障个人信息安全专家强烈建议切勿使用工作设备处理家庭事务涉及医疗状况高度敏感的个人信息。

"I suspect that most people are fully cognizant of this," remarked Nguyen.

揣想多数人对此心知肚明,”阮氏言道

"Yet the prospect of switching phones may prove utterly exasperating, or perhaps individuals fail to grasp the profound magnitude of the peril... Would you willingly consign yourself to such latent jeopardy?"

然而更换手机一事令人不胜其烦抑或人们并未真正洞悉其危害之深……岂愿将自己置于潜在的险境之中。”

August 21st, 2026

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