By Sam StevensonShareNewsweek is a Trust Project memberDigital surveillance in the workplace may trigger mental health issues and pressure employees to meet productivity targets, an official report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) has warned.
New publicly-released GAO evidence reveals growing concerns over the health, safety, and employment impacts of digital surveillance—often dubbed "bossware"—for American workers.
Why It Matters
As monitoring technologies become standard across diverse industries, the lack of transparency and regulation has left millions at risk of physical injuries, mental stress, and job insecurity.
Policymakers, advocates, and researchers stress that urgent reforms are necessary to ensure employee well-being and safeguard fundamental workplace rights. The GAO's latest report highlights these risks and urges an examination of the widespread, multifaceted effects of workplace surveillance technologies.
...What To Know
The GAO has released its second major report on digital workplace surveillance, publicly examining the "potential effects on workers and roles of federal agencies."
It found that digital surveillance tools—including cameras, microphones, productivity software, geolocation trackers, and wearable devices—are now prevalent in American workplaces.
They are deployed with goals ranging from improving safety to boosting efficiency, yet their use can bring damaging consequences.
- Physical health and safety: Digital surveillance can have both a positive and negative impact. Some surveillance can help identify health risks early (such as cardiac issues in employees), yet pushing staff to meet stricter productivity goals can increase injury risk.
- Mental health: There can also be positive and negative impacts on mental health. Constant monitoring often leads to anxiety, stress, and lowered morale, especially when employers lack transparency about data collection. On the other hand, workers can also report an improved sense of safety on the positive side.
- Employment outcomes: Automated tools can incorrectly assess performance, leading to disciplinary actions, pay cuts, or termination if benchmarks are flawed.
The GAO based its findings on interviews with 11 stakeholder groups and a review of 122 studies published between 2020 and 2024.
These studies, while subject to some limitations, were considered sufficiently robust for inclusion by the agency.
Broad adoption of surveillance has paralleled the rise of remote work and new digital management capabilities.
According to a nationally representative 2024 survey by Columbia University, 68 percent of U.S. workers said they’ve experienced some form of electronic monitoring, cutting across blue- and white-collar jobs and organization sizes.
What People Are Saying
The GAO report said: "Digital surveillance can both positively and negatively affect workers’ physical health and safety. For example, some surveillance tools can identify cardiac issues, indicating potential heart disease. Conversely, surveillance can increase workers' risk of injuries by pushing them to move faster to meet productivity metrics."
National Employment Law Project (NELP) senior researcher and policy analyst Irene Tung said: "We must take immediate and decisive action to mitigate the harmful impacts of digital surveillance and automated decision systems, especially as new technologies like AI grow more sophisticated."
Writing in a blog post headlined ‘Your boss is probably spying on you,’ Alexander Hertel-Fernandez, associate professor at Columbia University, said: "More than two-thirds of U.S. workers report experiencing at least one form of electronic monitoring…Workers who reported more intensive electronic productivity monitoring were substantially more likely to report anxiety at work; needing to work at unsafe speeds; and experiencing work-related injuries."
What Happens Next
The GAO report and parallel studies have intensified calls for regulatory reform and oversight. NELP recommends updating federal labor protections for the digital era and directly regulating the use of bossware, especially concerning performance evaluation and disciplinary decisions.
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