Microsoft U-turns on Productivity Score tool after workplace surveillance criticism

‘We believe privacy is a fundamental human right,’ firm claims, after admitting employee tracking tool error

Microsoft faced criticism for its Productivity Score feature, which critics dubbed a workplace surveillance tool (Getty Images)

Microsoft will change part of its Productivity Score feature after critics accused it of being a “full-fledged workplace surveillance tool”.

Productivity Score was launched in October, allowing employers to track the day-to-day activities of workers in order to “accelerate digital transformation” and “provide insights into how your organisation works”. 

It was capable of analysing how much time people were spending online, how often they were sending emails, and when they were using their camera during video conference meetings.

It also ranked employees in a league table to show how they were performing compared to their peers.

Shortly after being released it faced backlash from privacy advocates, who claimed it would herald a new era of workplace surveillance.

Data researcher Wolfie Christl, who first drew attention to the tool, accused Microsoft of normalising workplace surveillance “in a way not seen before”.

He said: “This is so problematic at many levels… Not least, Microsoft gets the power to define highly arbitrary metrics that will potentially affect the daily lives of millions of employees and even shape how organisations function.”

The technology giant will now modify the employee tracking function in Microsoft 365 so that individuals can no longer be identified on an individual level.

“We believe that data-driven insights are crucial to empowering people and organisations to achieve more. We also believe that privacy is a human right, and we’re deeply committed to the privacy of every person who uses our products,” Microsoft’s head of Microsoft 365 Jared Spataro wrote in a blog post explaining the U-turn.

“These changes to the product will bolster privacy for end users, while still enabling IT professionals to measure and manage their organisation’s adoption of the productivity apps and services in Microsoft 365.”

Responding to the update, Mr Christl wrote on Twitter: “I welcome that Microsoft is making significant changes and will entirely remove individual-level reporting.

“However, it’s important to understand that the new ‘productivity score’ tool is just the tip of the iceberg.

"The collection and use of personal data at the workplace generally deserves much more scrutiny and attention. This is not only about ‘privacy’, but about power asymmetries. A major vendor’s product designs affect the daily lives of millions of employees around the globe.”