VC money is fueling a global boom in worker surveillance tech

Summary

Technologies that promise to track, manage, and supervise workers, increasingly using artificial intelligence, are getting entrenched in the developing world, according to a new report by Coworker.org, a labor rights nonprofit based in New York. Audits of more than 150 startups and regional companies based in Kenya, Nigeria, Colombia, Brazil, Mexico, and India showed workplace surveillance is expanding in scale and sophistication, the researchers said. While large corporations are known to develop surveillance technologies, a so-called Little Tech ecosystem of mostly unregulated, venture capital-funded startups and small vendors making these products has grown since Covid-19, the report found. The term “Little Tech” was popularized by the VC firm Andreessen Horowitz, which argued that excessive regulation was stifling innovation. Algorithmic management and surveillance tools are getting even more intrusive in gig work, and are entering offices and the informal labor sector as well, Wilneida Negrón, director of research and policy at Coworker.org and a co-author of the report, told Rest of World. “The pressure of the hyper-surveillance creates a lot of stress and creates a lot of uncertainty for workers. It brings a culture of suspiciousness,” she said. Investments by Silicon Valley-based VC firms led to a boom in tech startups globally after Covid-19, Negrón said. This has carried over to companies building bossware products in the developing world, she said. The technologies include biometric tracking, AI-powered productivity monitoring, and predictive analytics, the report found. Worker data is continuously collected and analyzed by algorithms with the stated aim to improve hiring, evaluate performance, and optimize processes. Most managers in wealthier nations say algorithmic management tools improve their decision-making, according to a 2024 survey of over 6,000 employers by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. More than 90% of American ma...