Photo: AJH
Pushing back against remote monitoring.
MOUSE JIGGLERS
Employers are monitoring productivity more than ever, thanks to the boom in remote work.
So-called “tattleware” is being installed on company-issued devices to track employee screen time, keyboard usage and clicks.
Whenever your mouse stops moving, the AI recognises you are idle on your device and employers can see this.
Because of this, employees are turning to gadgets to outsmart monitoring software.
One such tool is called a ‘mouse jiggler‘, designed to keep your mouse moving and your screen on.
Simulated mouse movement prevents your computer from going into sleep mode.
I learned about mouse jigglers online. The device claims to be undetectable by your computer.
Here’s how a mouse jiggler works, like the $30 Vaydeer Mouse Jiggler off Amazon.
It takes less than a minute to set up. You simply plug the power cord into the USB port on your computer, or attach it to the power brick and plug it into the wall. Use the wall for power if you’re paranoid.
There’s an orange power button on the left side that you can press to turn it on and off. A turntable moves when it’s on.
That’s where you place the mouse’s sensor. Once your mouse is in the right position, you’ll begin to see the cursor on your screen move very slowly, keeping your monitor from going to sleep.
That’s pretty much all there is to it.
Once your mouse is on the jiggler you can get up, make lunch, do whatever you need — and your computer won’t go to sleep.
The mouse jiggler may not help with keyboard usage or clicks, but it should address screen time monitoring by keeping your computer’s display on. Excuses can be made for your clicks, like you were scrolling through a document or website.
You can also buy variants for USB mouse devices and even find apps for a smartphone:
This device works best for computers that are owned by the employee at home. Note USB security for work-owned computers.
It won’t make you more productive, of course, but it may trick some surveillance software into thinking you’re still working, at least if that software is checking to see if your computer is active.
These types of devices are becoming a necessity in a modern world of ever-growing online workplace monitoring.
THE SURVEILLANCE CREEP
Employers are acting like the modern-age Big Brother with their AI programs and citizens are right to fight back.
Especially since, as always, our laws are playing catch-up with these tech overlords and their plans.
In November, a NSW Parliamentary committee has warned that outdated laws are allowing “unchecked and unchallenged” use of surveillance and automation technologies by employers:
And it isn’t just in the workplace this tracking is occurring.
At least 24 universities in Australia and New Zealand used some sort of online proctoring tool during lockdowns.
Many universities opted for proctoring platforms such as Proctorio, Examity or the most popular choice, ProctorU. Proctoring platforms use a combination of “human” monitoring and AI monitoring to monitor students’ conduct during exams.
Academics and privacy experts have criticised these decisions, from multiple universities, to sign up to remote exam monitoring software created by third-party companies.
Furthermore, over 4 million Australian school students were caught up in an international data mining scheme due to remote learning during lockdown periods:
The HRW findings showed that 89 per cent of the educational technology, or “EdTech” products, used on an international scale put children’s privacy at risk.
Constant monitoring, powered by AI.
We predicted this would become the normality for workplaces in post-lockdown back in June 2020:
Trapping people in their homes, where interaction is digital and you are monitored more than ever before.
A recent examination by The New York Times found that 80% of the 10 largest private U.S. employers track the productivity metrics of individual workers.
Modern workplaces are already slave systems, and these types of programs are an attempt to fully implement a slave class to run them.
Thankfully, the people are fighting back against this digital dystopia with great success.
THE MORE YOU SPY..
Of course, we shouldn’t need these gadgets in the first place. But this is the state of affairs.
As such, in recent years, privacy advocates and concerned citizens have been studying how to beat these systems.
Secretly monitoring employees makes them more likely to break the very rules these systems are trying to deter, according to a recent study by Harvard Business Review.
It is still somewhat in our nature to resist this science fiction experiment in real-time, and mouse jigglers are just one element.
As we all know, mass surveillance extends beyond the scope of just the workplace. It includes things like public facial recognition, online data collection and more.
In July 2022, researchers from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and Tel Aviv University published a report claiming success on their efforts to foil biometric surveillance technology:
When an individual wears a mask with this new adversarial pattern, top cameras were stumped in recognition efforts:
It is also much easier to wear one of these masks in public now, given the mass hysteria surrounding covering your face both during the COVID-19 period and even to this day.
Previously, they may have thought you were a bank robber or an Al Qaeda member, who knows.
It’s one thing to cover your face in submission due to a mandate.
It’s another to choose to wear one out of resistance, in order to go about your business in a world of prying eyes everywhere.
Speaking of prying eyes, we can’t forget abut the online realm. AI systems creep on many social platforms, for which we have provided links on how to still remain online without being completely identified.
These are just a few examples, including the mouse jiggler concept, that demonstrate humanity’s continued will to be free.
Instead of cowering in the face of this technology, we must find ways to outmanoeuvre it.
We are humans, after all. Never forget how powerful that really is.
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Love that smart people are inventing things to counteract things like this. But you can adjust your monitor not to go to sleep in your settings. Can’t say the same for mouse movement though.