BigBrother! Monitoring software.....

[WTFH]

It was only because I googled the company they were using that I saw what else it did

Ah, so you read something on the internet and have decided that is a good enough reason to quit your contract.
I think you probably need to speak to your client and ask them what they use the software for, rather than having decided the whole thing in your head based on google & rumours.

Are you 100% certain they have installed and are using the full functionality of the software?


Be careful how you approach this, remember you are a supplier, not a permanent employee, so while a permie can go whinging to HR claiming that they are in breach of some law or other, etc, you as a supplier are using equipment supplied by your client to allow you to carry out the tasks. That equipment may or may not have software on it which may or may not be used.

[WTFH]

As an aside, I was working for a client a few years ago who were going to put in monitoring software for their helpdesk staff.
They wanted to do some testing and I was volunteered to see if I could follow the instructions on how to use it. The idea was that the user would switch it on to record what they did in the live system, then switch it off when complete, and the recording would be attached to the helpdesk ticket. Since we were preparing to go live, they wanted to test it on me so they could see how well it recorded the config I was doing.
After one of the tests they told me that it had finally worked (it didn't like remote desktop connections initially), so I asked to see the playback. As I logged in to the production system, their playback showed my username and password. When I saw that, I pointed out to them that the software breached their data protection guidelines and must not be used until they can prove that it did not record or display passwords. The manufacturers of the software didn't think that was an issue and so I refused to do any more testing.

[BrilloPad]

In the 1980s Japanese software developers were paid by the line of code.

You can imagine how that ended.

Who was it who said that monitoring anything changes it?

Every time admin has made any attempt to change anything for how CUK posters rate other posters I have switched and gamed it. Just to prove how stupid it is.

[pauldee]

In the 1980s Japanese software developers were paid by the line of code.

You can imagine how that ended.

Who was it who said that monitoring anything changes it?

Werner Heisenberg

Every time admin has made any attempt to change anything for how CUK posters rate other posters I have switched and gamed it. Just to prove how stupid it is.

People will always game the system. That's why you're best off having only one metric: 'Write really good code'. That way, that's what people will do.

[BrilloPad]

Werner Heisenberg



People will always game the system. That's why you're best off having only one metric: 'Write really good code'. That way, that's what people will do.

Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place. Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as possible, you are, by definition, not smart enough to debug it.

Brian Kernighan.

[WTFH]

If a dev writes really good code, the client will change their requirements.

[Hobosapien]

Devs don't write code anymore, they copy/paste it from StackOverflow and the like.

So when this monitoring software says you just clicked the mouse a few times and a few keystrokes (for find/replace all), you can point out that the software must be broken as 'look I've typed in all this code, better you monitor code check-ins instead'.

I presume there's a way of slowing the paste action down so code appears line by line, then the typing is theoretically within keyboard limits.

[TheFaQQer]

All my actions on the work machine are captured, screenshots, even video capture if needed etc. It works out how many words have been typed, mouse actions resulting in a % of how hard you have worked today.

Find some images at home of complificated looking maths, programs, algorithms, flow charts etc.

Print them out as if they are your own work, and compile them in a notebook.

If anyone asks why your percentage is down, point them to the "notes" that you've been making.

Simple.

[Hobosapien]

or just say you've been coding in notepad ............ a paper notepad.

[tarbera]

GDPR

So you don’t have any evidence of the extent of monitoring?
You know what the software can do, but not whether it is doing it. And rumours from staff.

You might want to understand the facts before you burn any bridges.

As for law.... are you certain? Are you a lawyer?

They cannot breach GDPR yet either. Not till 8th May.

you mean the 25th May for GDPR, But they will be in breach of the DPA if they have not captured consent from OP, more so if they are gathering sensitive or personal data