Would you want your boss knowing everywhere you went 24 hours a day? That’s exactly what will happen if you allow your employer to install tracking software on your smartphone. Even if it’s supposedly only for tracking you doing work hours, human nature makes it 100% certain that nosy bosses or tracking firm employees (or the government) will track all the movements of people they are interested in.
It’s bad enough that you’re boss will know you stopped off at Victoria’s Secret on your lunch break to buy a Valentine’s gift for your boyfriend, but do you really want him to know that you attend an AA meeting every Wednesday or spend most of your weekends at the horse race track? This kind of smartphone tracking software is clearly a violation of personal privacy, and employees must stand up for their rights. One California woman is doing just that.
Details on lawsuit regarding deleting work tracking app
A woman in California has filed a lawsuit against her ex-employer claiming she was fired for uninstalling a smartphone app enabling her employer to track her movements 24/7 whether she was working or not.
A recent Ars Technica report notes that Myrna Arias worked for Intermex wire transfer service, and alleges her boss, John Stubits, fired her for deleting the Xora job management and tracking app from her smartphone.
According to the legal filings in the lawsuit, Arias claims that the Xora app allowed Intermex and Stubits to track her movements 24 hours a day whether she was working or not.
Arias said that when she and her fellow employees asked Stubits if he could track them when they weren’t working, Stubits, “admitted that employees would be monitored while off duty and bragged that he knew how fast she was driving at specific moments ever since she had installed the app on her phone.”
In the filings, Arias said did not mind the app tracking her while she was working, but didn’t want to be tracked when she was off work as it was an invasion of privacy. Arias is seeking payment for lost wages and punitive damages.
Intermex had not yet responded to a request for comment.
