TCS's digital monitoring tool sparks employee tracking concerns
What's the story
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has deployed a Digital User Experience Monitoring tool on employee laptops. The move has raised questions about whether the technology is being used for data security or tracking employees' activities. The tool, installed on company-issued laptops, gives TCS access to information such as applications accessed and time spent by employees on them.
Dual perspective
Tool raises questions on employee tracking
The deployment of the monitoring tool is being viewed internally as either a way to prevent data leaks or an attempt to gain greater control over employee activity on their devices.
However, TCS has not responded to queries about the tool's name and vendor, its capabilities, what employee data it collects, and who within the company can access this information.
Privacy issues
Potential for individual monitoring raises concerns
The deployment of the tool has raised concerns over how far it can be used to monitor individual employees.
This is especially true if information on application usage or working hours is collected at an individual level.
The extent of monitoring available through the tool could not be independently established, nor whether the information collected is linked to individual employees or aggregated for IT and security teams.
Data management challenges
Operational challenges in tracking employee activity
A source said TCS would have to go beyond login hours and check what work is actually being done during that time, especially since many employees work through client virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI).
Any attempt to capture activity from client VDIs could also raise concerns over client data confidentiality and potential breaches.
Tracking such a large volume of activity data across a workforce of nearly 600,000 employees could pose a significant operational and data-management challenge.
Past efforts
Zscaler partnership and the monitoring tool
The development comes months after TCS expanded its partnership with cybersecurity firm Zscaler and launched TCS Workspace Experience Studio powered by Zscaler Digital Experience (ZDX).
The company had then said the offering combines zero-trust security, workplace observability, digital experience monitoring, and AI-powered experience analytics to help enterprises monitor and improve their digital workplaces.
However, it remains unclear if the monitoring tool is the same Zscaler-powered technology.