Worker Surveillance Tech Is Surging In Global South, Thanks To VC Money
Workplace surveillance in the Global South is on the rise, according to a new report by Coworker.org, a labor rights nonprofit based in New York. Technologies for tracking and managing staff workers are expanding in scale and sophistication in more than 150 startups and regional companies based in Kenya, Nigeria, Colombia, Brazil, Mexico, and India, researchers said.
The term “Little Tech” was made popular by the VC firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), which argues that excessive regulation was stifling innovation. The Coworker.org report found that the Little Tech ecosystem, which primarily consists of unregulated, venture capital-funded startups and small vendors producing these products, has expanded since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Little Tech ecosystem in the developing world
Wilneida Negrón, director of research and policy at Coworker.org and a co-author of the report, told The Rest of World that algorithmic management and surveillance tools are becoming increasingly invasive in gig work and are now expanding into offices and the informal labor sector. She added that funds from Silicon Valley-based VC firms have led to a boom in tech startups across the world post-COVID-19.
Biometric tracking, AI-powered productivity monitoring, and predictive analytics are among the technologies employed, according to the report. Data about workers is continuously collected and examined by algorithms to improve hiring, analyze performance, and optimize processes.
Several tools are usually first installed in Latin America, where labor laws are relaxed, according to Ayden Férdeline, a tech policy researcher in Berlin and a co-author of the report. But Férdeline asserts that several workers are unaware of how their information is collected and utilized.
How do gig workers feel about workplace surveillance?
Gig workers in Kenya, Guatemala, and Brazil said bossware tools make them feel surveilled, and that they have less control over their work. Godfrey Sanya Wanga, a driver for ride-hailing firm SafeBoda in Nairobi, told Rest of World I really wanted to ask [the customer] to pay me more, but I remembered that I was being monitored and this would bring me trouble if the client reported me.”
Various nations have data protection and privacy laws, including Brazil, Nigeria, and Kenya. But the report found enforcement isn’t consistent.
Image: POCIT/freepik
