Friday, June 14, 2024

Welcome to the world of the "mouse-mover"

Well, here's a bizarre concept. The more I read on the internet, the more weird stuff jumps out at me.

Wells Fargo Bank has recently fired over a dozen employees for using "mouse-mover" or "mouse-jiggler" software. So, yes, there are computer programs out there that will move a computer's mouse or trigger phantom keyboard entries without any human intervention, so as to give the impression that the computer is being used, i.e. that the owner is working.

I mean, I guess it's quite clever, but it means that there is a market out there for such a service. And this is because, in this post-pandemic era of working-from-home, there are a whole load of people who want to appear to be working when they are actually out cutting the grass or smoking dope or working out or whatever it is they do.

And here's the kicker, the reason this is an issue in the first place is because companies like Well Fargo (and I'm sure many more) are employing their own software to check that absent employees are using their computer mouse or typing things (anything). Because, apparently, moving your mouse equates to work. 

I knew that some companies installed spyware on their employees' computers to check on what they are doing. And that's bad enough. But apparently there are some who just want to check that employees are moving their mouses!

This seems inconceivable to me. Can't they check that the employees are actually achieving concrete results, like bringing in customers, producing reports, or whatever? Or is that just incredibly naive and old-fashioned of me?

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