The UK Government has launched a consultation on workplace monitoring technologies, putting the growing use of digital employee surveillance under fresh scrutiny.
The consultation, which closes on 30 September 2026, seeks views on how to ensure the “fair, transparent and responsible” use of tools that monitor, manage or make decisions about workers.
These technologies can include access-control systems, attendance tracking, communications monitoring and algorithmic management. In practical terms, they can range from keystroke logging and screen capture to location tracking, facial recognition and automated workplace decisions.
Why employee monitoring is under scrutiny
Speaking to UC Today, Demetrius Floudas, AI lawyer and strategist at the University of Cambridge, said keystroke and screen-activity logging are among employees’ biggest concerns because monitoring can be difficult to see and understand.
“The distinction between consultation and mere notification is the entire argument,” he said. “A right exercised only after the fact is a right that arrived too late to matter.”
Existing data-protection law, including General Data Protection Regulation provisions covering solely automated decision-making, offers workers some protection. But Floudas argued that the current approach is largely reactive: an employee must identify a problem and bring a complaint after a monitoring system is already operating.
