Bangalore. An IT company, USATech has been accused of spying on its employees by planting miniature microphones in the coffee vending machines installed in the office premises.
The shocking revelation came to light after Ramu Bondeshwar, a maintenance staff spotted a microphone while refilling one of the machines.
The most happening place in an office
It’s a well known fact that coffee vending machines are the gossip points in every company where all kinds of discussions happen. Employees of USATech are blaming company’s higher management for the privacy breach.
“Bitching about boss, plans to leave the company, actual situation of the projects, fake leave plans, and all those private pieces of information that company can’t get directly, can be easily obtained by bugging the coffee machines,” said Kaanu Kapoor, CEO of an agency that sells spying products.
“Company management normally uses these bits of information during salary hikes, leave granting, bonus distribution, and layoffs,” he added.
That’s not the end of story. If sources are to be believed, firms that resort to such unethical means to obtain data, make money by selling data to real estate brokers, broadband providers, and banks to name a few.
“Apart from bitching, employees discuss their personal problems such as accommodation, loans, etc. while having coffee. HR department identifies them from their voice samples and give their contact details to telemarketers and agents,” Kaanu revealed.
“Apart from these, the other saleable commodity is a recorded conversation that has the voice of a guy initiating first talk with a girl. These recordings are normally sold to humor websites,” Kannu elaborated the “benefits” of hidden microphones in coffee vending machines.
Faking News asked the HR department of USATech if they could provide us such clips for free. When they refused, we decided to take the crucial matter of breach of privacy.
USATech CEO downplayed the incident by saying that they were doing it to know the level of satisfaction among employees, as it helps in designing employee friendly policies. He further claimed that the office boy Ramu Bondeshwar was a spy from a rival company.
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