Alarm at big brother office software

Fairfax

INTRUSION IS PRIVACY: Civil liberties groups are questioning a Microsoft patent that would allow bosses to monitor their employees heart rate and other physiological signs.

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Workers be warned. New software that can detect when people are slacking off on the job is on the way.

Microsoft is developing Big-Brother style software capable of remotely monitoring a workers productivity, competence and physical wellbeing, The Times reports.

It will even alert a manager if your heart beat and facial expressions indicate you are stressed or frustrated.

The Times has seen a patent application filed by the company for a computer system that links workers to their computers via wireless sensors that measure their metabolism.

The system will let managers monitor workers' performance by measuring heart rate, body temperature, brain signals, movement, facial expression and blood pressure, The Times said.

But the project is already causing major concern among civil liberties groups and privacy lawyers, who have criticised they system's potential to take "the idea of monitoring people at work to a new level".

And unions fear employees could be dismissed on the basis of a computers assessment of their physiological state.

"Imposing this level of intrusion on employees could only be justified in exceptional circumstances," Britain's Information Commissioners Office said.

The US Patent Office had confirmed that the application was published last month, 18 months after being filed, The Times reported.

Patent lawyers said that it could be granted within a year.

Microsoft refused to comment on the application.

- AAP